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US airstrikes kill 70 in Iraq

Charter passage likely as Sunnis fail to veto it

AP, Baghdad
US warplanes and helicopters bombed two villages near the restive city of Ramadi, killing an estimated 70 militants, the military said yesterday, though witnesses said at least 39 of the dead were civilians.
The violence on Sunday occurred a day after Iraq voted on and apparently passed a landmark constitution that many Sunnis opposed. As officials continued to count the millions of paper ballots Monday, the constitution seemed assured of passage after initial results showed minority Sunnis had fallen short in an effort to veto it.
A foreign election observer confirmed that apparent outcome in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday. He spoke on condition of
anonymity, saying the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission would announce the official results, which could be released Wednesday.
The acceptance of the constitution would be a major step in the attempt to establish a democratic government that could lead to the withdrawal of US troops. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Sunday that violence will continue in Iraq, even if the new constitution is adopted. She said support for the insurgency would eventually wane as the country moves toward democracy.
On referendum day, a roadside bomb killed five US soldiers in a vehicle in the Al-Bu Ubaid village on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi. On Sunday, a group of about two dozen
Iraqis gathered around the wreckage; they were hit by US airstrikes, the military and witnesses said.
The military said in a statement that the crowd was setting another roadside bomb when F-15 warplanes hit them, killing around 20 people, described by the military as "terrorists."
But several witnesses and one local leader said they were civilians who had gathered to gawk at and take pieces of the wreckage, as often occurs after an American vehicle is hit.
A tribal leader, Chiad Saad, said the airstrike killed 25 civilians, and several other witnesses said the same thing, though they refused to give their names out of fear for their safety. The other deaths occurred in the nearby village of Al-Bu Faraj.
The military said a group of gunmen opened fire on a Cobra attack helicopter that had spotted their position. The Cobra returned fire, killing around 10. The men ran into a nearby house, where gunmen were seen unloading weapons when an F/A-18 warplane struck the building with a bomb, killing 40 insurgents, the military said.
Witnesses said at least 14 of the dead were civilians. First, one man was wounded in an airstrike, and when he was brought into a nearby building, warplanes struck it, said the witnesses, who refused to give their names over concerns about their safety.
An Associated Press stringer later saw the 14 bodies and the damaged building. He said residents, many of them crying, removed the bodies and buried them, some in wooden coffins, others simply wrapped in white cloth. One of the bodies was that of a boy who appeared to be between the ages of 10 and 15, the stringer said.
Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, is a stronghold for Sunni insurgents, and few people cast ballots there during Saturday's referendum either out of fear of militants' reprisals or out of rejection of the new constitution.
A US Marine was also killed by a bomb Saturday in the town of Saqlawiyah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The weekend's US military fatalities brought to at least 1,976 the number of US service members who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.