DUBAI - The group of Al-Qaeda's Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has denied US charges that it used human shields in fighting with US forces but vowed more attacks against the Americans, according to a statement posted on the Internet Wednesday.
"They accuse our mujahedeen (holy warriors) of using human shields. But you are deceiving yourselves, worshippers of the cross... Wasn't it the Americans who used women and children as shields in Fallujah?" said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
The US military waged a major assault on Fallujah in November in a bid to oust rebels from the city west of Baghdad.
"Our mujahedeen rush to death... they want to die as much as you care to live," added the statement, signed by the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers.
The US military said Monday that insurgents used patients as human shields in a four-hour weekend battle in a hospital in Hadithah, 260 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Baghdad, that left four US troops dead.
The group led by Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who has a 25 million dollar price on his head, has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the downfall of Saddam Hussein two years ago.
In the statement, the group vowed more attacks by its "martyrdom-seekers" against US forces in western Iraq.
Dozens of people were killed in a string of blasts in Iraq Wednesday as US troops battled insurgents in the lawless western hinterland during a massive operation against Zarqawi's network.
05/11/2005 08:32 GMT