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Two suicide bombers have killed at least five people, including three US nationals, in an attack inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, an attack claimed by America's top enemy in Iraq.
The US state department had said earlier 10 people were killed in the attacks on Thursday but revised the number down.
"The correct toll is five people are confirmed dead, including three Americans and two non-Americans. Another American is missing and presumed dead," spokesman Tom Casey said. He did not know the nationality of the non-Americans.
Hours later, US warplanes and helicopters launched fierce and sustained air strikes against the rebel town of Falluja where Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, blamed for some of the worst militant violence in Iraq, is believed to be holed up.
The Green Zone blasts at a souvenir bazaar and a cafe popular with US troops and civilians were the first suicide bombings inside what is supposed to be the safest place in Iraq. The country's interim government quickly vowed to strike back.
At least 20 people were injured in the explosions that scattered debris, blood and flesh and sent a thick plume of black smoke over the zone's palms and buildings.
The lunchtime bomb blasts, on the eve of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, occurred within minutes of each other, setting the bazaar alight and gutting the Green Zone Cafe.
"People were screaming. I was on the floor," said Mohammed "Mo" Nawaf al-Obeidi, 25, owner of the nearby Mo's Restaurant, who was at the cafe. "People were stampeding, trying to get out," he said, his right hand bandaged.
At the cafe, an orange metal-framed tent built onto a former petrol station, the area was littered with glass, twisted metal, blood and food. Pieces of flesh were lying up to 15 meters away.
The sprawling Green Zone, in Saddam Hussein's former presidential compound, houses government offices and the U.S. and British embassies. Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the bombings, a statement on a Web site said.
"Two lions from the Tawhid and Jihad group's Martyrdom Brigade managed to get inside ... the Green Zone," it said, calling it one of the group's most successful operations.
Iraq's interim government pledged to retaliate.
"We deliver a message to terrorism in all its forms -- to Zarqawi terrorism and al Qaeda and the remnants of the former regime -- we are waiting for them and we will attack them wherever they are," said National Security Adviser Kassim Daoud.
Hours later, fresh US air strikes, which residents said were much fiercer than previous operations, hit Falluja. There was no immediate word on casualties.
The raids followed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's demand that residents give up Zarqawi and his fighters and the breakdown of talks between Iraq's administration and town representatives.
The US military said in a statement that its attack was aimed at Zarqawi's network and had destroyed a weapons cache and several illegal checkpoints. US warplanes strike suspected guerrilla positions in Falluja daily in a bid to root out militants in control of the town.
(China Daily via agencies October 15, 2004)
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