US launches new attacks in the battle for Falluja

IRAQ: US Marines launched new air and ground attacks against guerrillas in Falluja yesterday as President Bush warned that his…

IRAQ: US Marines launched new air and ground attacks against guerrillas in Falluja yesterday as President Bush warned that his troops would take whatever action was necessary to secure the Iraqi city.

Mr Bush said that there were "pockets of resistance" in the Sunni bastion, some 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, but "most of Falluja" was returning to normal. "Our military commanders will take whatever actions \ necessary to secure Falluja," he added.

Black smoke rose above Falluja's palm-dotted Golan district from the fighting as US commanders said they were holding back from an all-out storming of the city of 300,000 amid hopes of the guerrillas agreeing to hand over their heavy weapons.

US forces, who have encircled Falluja for more than three weeks, are wary of causing civilian casualties because this could inflame public opinion even more across Iraq.

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A year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, who spent his 67th birthday in the custody of US forces yesterday, American troops are trying to quell twin threats to the new order in Iraq - from the Falluja guerrillas and from Shia rebels in the south.

In the latest fighting in Falluja, just over two months before a planned US handover of power to the Iraqis, US Cobra attack helicopters strafed the Golan district after shelling and fierce exchanges of gunfire broke out.

Despite a warning from the UN envoy to Iraq, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, of bloody consequences if talks to resolve the impasse in Falluja failed, an AC-130 gunship of the type first used in Vietnam blasted the Golan district on Tuesday night in the heaviest fighting yet in and around the city.

Marines stormed an area around a railway station and called in air strikes elsewhere after snipers fired on them, the US military said.

Hospital staff said that 10 local people had been wounded in the fighting.

"This attack shows the frustration in the ranks of American soldiers in Iraq and the American political defeat," said Falluja resident Ali Abdullah. "We have uncovered the treachery and barbarity of the US army."

Heavy fighting has flared frequently in Falluja this month despite attempts by Iraqi mediators and others to make a truce stick.

Local doctors say that some 600 people have been killed and many more have fled Falluja since the Marines launched a crackdown after the killing and mutilation of four American security guards in the city.

During the invasion of Iraq a year ago US soldiers killed and wounded dozens of demonstrators in Falluja, angering Sunnis in a city which has become a byword for resistance to the US-led occupation.

A fierce clash also occurred overnight in Khaldiya, west of Falluja, witnesses said, and US troops were out in force in other towns in the so-called "Sunni triangle" north and west of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein's home region and his main stronghold.

Some 115 US soldiers have been killed in combat in Iraq this month, compared with fewer than 100 in the three weeks it took to remove Saddam from power. At least 520 US soldiers have been killed in combat since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March last year.

Three more US soldiers were reported to have died yesterday in two incidents.

US forces are facing an even more delicate dilemma in the southern city of Najaf, where a radical cleric from Iraq's Shia majority, Moqtada al-Sadr, has taken refuge among the shrines with several thousand members of his militia.

US commanders near Najaf said that an attack on Monday by an AC-130 gunship, which they believed killed some 60 Shia fighters, appeared to have demoralised Sadr's supporters and was part of a strategy to persuade the cleric to give himself up.

An aide to Sadr - who is wanted by an Iraqi judge in connection with the murder of another cleric - was quick to echo local accusations that many civilians died in Monday's attack near Kufa, outside the city, the heaviest in a three-week stand-off. Sadr has threatened suicide attacks if the Americans attempt to enter Najaf.

Cleric Hussam al-Husseini warned yesterday against what he saw as a US attempt to cut off Kufa - a base for many guerrillas - from Najaf. "All the land of Najaf region is holy and we have the right to defend our holy sites," he said.

US commanders have said that they will only attack mosques if they are being used in combat. "Our goal is to continue to pressure Sadr to understand that we are not going away," said Col Brad May, commander of the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, outside Najaf. "It is in his best interest to go ahead and lay down arms."