ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 30 - US Says Air Strike Kills Iraq Al Qaeda Fighters.

US forces kill a known Al Qaeda militant in western Iraq in air strikes which a hospital official said had killed 47 people. US warplanes launched three waves of strikes near the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, in a remote area Washington has long said is a route into Iraq for foreign Islamist fighters allied to the insurgency among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority. "Intelligence leads Coalition forces to believe that Abu Islam and several of his associates were killed in the air strike", a US military spokeswoman said in Baghdad. A hospital official in Qaim, Mohammad Al Aani, told Reuters 35 people had died in a strike on one house and another 12 in a second house. It was not immediately clear how many of the 47 might have been militants. The US military said in a statement it had carried out three separate strikes, initially dropping four bombs on a house in Qusayba, near Qaim, referred to by the military as Husayba. "At approximately 6:20 a.m. (0220 GMT), two bombs were dropped on a second house in Husayba, occupied by Abu Islam, a known terrorist", the statement said. "Islam and several other suspected terrorists were killed in that attack". Some of his associates then drove around six km (four miles) to a house in Karabila, a military spokeswoman said. "Around 8:30 a.m., a strike was conducted on the house in Karabila using two precision- guided bombs. Several terrorists were killed in the strike but exact numbers are not known". Abu Islam is an alias used by several Islamist militants. US spokesmen had no further information on his identity. US Marines have launched several ground offensives against insurgents in the area in the past four months, but residents and local officials say Islamist insurgents remain a significant force in several towns along the Euphrates river. The region is home to two Sunni Arab tribes, one loyal to Al Qaeda and one to the Iraqi government. They clashed on Aug 27, killing at least 20 people and wounding scores, theologians and hospital officials in the town said. US and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shiite and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad. These three main Iraqi groups have been wrangling over the draft constitution, which has proved highly divisive in recent weeks, and one of Iraq's top Sunni political leaders, Adnan Dulaimi, said he would work hard for its rejection. "We will do our best to make sure this draft fails at the referendum", he told a joint news conference with the US ambassador, referring to a nationwide vote on the text due by Oct. 15. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been active in brokering the constitution presented to parliament on Aug 28, said two days ago that some Sunni leaders were reluctant to come out in favour of the draft in public because of intimidation. Arguments over the draft constitution are divisive in Iraq. The southern Shiite Muslims and northern Kurds broadly support the text, while the minority Sunni Arabs-from among whom Saddam Hussein drew his support-are broadly opposed. Dulaimi said the text did not meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people. One of Iraq's biggest Arab Sunni parties said on Aug 29 it might back the constitution, but it urged changes to the text accepted by the Shiite-dominated parliament on Aug 28. US Pres Bush hailed the draft as a breakthrough but predicted the October referendum could spark "atrocities" after Sunnis rejected the text.