BAGHDAD, Aug 30: US air strikes on suspected Al Qaeda hideouts in Iraq near the Syrian border left at least 56 people dead on Tuesday, an Iraqi security source said.
On the political front, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, said changes to the newly-drafted constitution were still possible, raising the hopes of the Sunni community.
The move came as the Sunnis, whose community is believed to form the backbone of the raging resistance, were seeking alliances to defeat the charter in an Oct 15 referendum.
“At least 56 people were killed in the air strikes carried out by US forces near Qaim close to the Syrian border,” a security source said.
The US military said it had no exact number of casualties.
“There was a total of three strikes targeting terrorist safe houses ... Abu Islam and several associates are believed killed,” a US military spokesman in Baghdad said, referring to a reported Al Qaeda operative.
Abu Islam was holed up around Karabila, near Qaim, 450 kilometres west of Baghdad, he added.
The US military launched similar strikes last Friday against another suspected Al Qaeda hideout also in the restive Al Anbar province of western Iraq.
Around 50 militants associated with Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, were in a safe house in the border town of Husaybah at the time, the military said without providing details of casualties.
One US soldier was killed and another wounded when their helicopter was downed on Monday by gunfire near Tall Afar, outside the main northern city of Mosul, the US military said on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, 13 people, including seven Iraqi policemen, were shot dead in a string of attacks in Baghdad and to the north, security sources said.
INCOMPLETE DOCUMENT: Mr Khalilzad hinted that the draft constitution presented to parliament on Sunday after weeks of tortuous negotiations which failed to bring the Sunnis on board was still an incomplete document.
“If Iraqis amongst themselves, in the assembly and of course from outside, decide to make some adjustments to the draft that was presented two or three days ago, it is entirely up to them,” he told reporters.
“I believe that a final ... draft has not yet been, or the edits have not been, presented yet, so that is something that Iraqis will have to talk to each other and decide for themselves.”
President Jalal Talabani announced on Sunday that the draft was ready to be put to the referendum in October for the Iraqi people to decide on its fate.—AFP
