Scores of gunmen firing mortars and grenades stormed Iraqi security posts in Falluja today, killing 14 police in an audacious strike on forces crucial to US plans to hand power to Iraqis.
Police said their station and an Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) headquarters as well as the mayor's office were hit in a co-ordinated assault by about 70 guerrillas which left a total of 22 people dead, including four attackers and four civilians.
At least 35 people were wounded in the attack on the ICDC compound, where US forces' Middle East commander General John Abizaid escaped a grenade attack during a visit two days ago.
US troops stayed out of the fighting today. Police said 20 to 85 prisoners escaped from jails in the police station during the attack, the latest in a series of strikes on US-backed Iraqi forces apparently designed to undermine US plans to hand back power to Iraqis by June 30th.
"(They) fired mortars, explosives and light machineguns from four directions. Their weapons were more powerful than our Kalashnikovs," said police officer Barazan Abu Issa, who was outside the police station when it was attacked.
Police said some officers were unarmed at the time of the attacks, which signalled growing boldness in a guerrilla campaign against US and other foreign forces and, increasingly, against Iraqis seen as collaborators.
Guerrillas have killed more than 600 Iraqi security and police personnel since April in an attempt to undermine US efforts to prepare Iraqis to take over security of the country.
The violence in Falluja came during one of the bloodiest weeks since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein on April 9th, including two suicide bombs that killed at least 100 Iraqis joining the police or a new Iraqi army.
The survival of those forces is key to the US plan to hand back power by June 30, a date to which President George W. Bush, facing a presidential election in November, is committed.
Alongside the violence, a struggle over the political future of Iraq after the formal end of occupation continues.