The Final Solution (Endlِsung) for Fallujah and Ramadi

One can accept the direct loss of life in the course of battle. But when prisoners of war and the general civilian population are gratuitously subjected to torture, abuse and execution, this can only be classified as sheer barbarism, propelled by the innate racism and hatred rather than the heightened instinct of survival produced in battle. Even animals do not exhibit such behaviour; they kill only in self-defence or for survival.


We take it for granted that human beings have an innate ability to exhibit higher standards of conduct than the animal kingdom. We often forget that when this ability is misused, human beings can act even lower than animals.


The killing of prisoners, women and children is driven primarily by a mindset that has been developed by the insidious political propaganda broadcasted through the modern day mass media. Indeed, propaganda always paves the way for a nation to commit mass murder. Demonisation of the enemy helps to lighten the guilt of the perpetrators that are conducting the slaughter. This process is essential as blood-stained hands can easily be cleansed but not the guilty minds. Culpability in turn generates fear; the fear of retribution. President Truman restrained from such thoughts when General Douglas MacArthur urged him to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and its ally China.



While modern propaganda techniques were developed by Adolf Hitler and his spin master Joseph Gobbels, it is now the likes of CNN, Fox TV and mainstream radio shows and newspaper editors that have perfected it. The CIA has perfected the torture techniques inherited from the Gestapo and is now ready to implement its version of the final solution (Endlِsung) in Fallujah and Ramadi by killing everyone there that opposes its agenda.


The consequence of demonisation through the mass media propaganda is the accumulation of hatred. What happened in Abu-Ghraib and what we see in the short video clips of US soldiers killing defenceless Iraqi civilians are clear evidences of that mindset. This is manifested not just in the conduct of the US soldiers but the US authority as they permitted and at times encouraged the torture and murder of Iraqi prisoners. When soldiers failed, hired torturers (‘civilian’ contractors) were brought in to complete the job. And now they are ready for Fallujah and Ramadi.



Such cold blooded acts constitute real hatred, bigotry and fanaticism which are at the root of US fundamentalism. It is the Islamic world that has been the victim of US militancy and fanaticism not the other way around. Like most real fanatics, the US refuses to examine its conduct or engage in any kind of self-evaluation. Even when caught red-handed, such as in the case of the absent WMDs and Abu Ghraib, the mistake is either marginalized or justified rather than admitting to it and correcting it.


The US is full of hate and extremism towards nations that do not comply with its agenda and answers the questions why the US is hated. George Bush proclaimed he could not understand why the Islamic world cannot see the good side of the Americans. That becomes difficult when you are bombing and plundering their nations even in violation of your own lectured principles! Hypocrites intoxicated with imperial power have no shame. You can remove the fig leaf of pretexts but like its men and women the US finds no shame in crass nudity.



It might be a good time to remember that the original goal was one of disarming Iraq of its mythical WMD’s. Their absence was ironically established by committing mass destruction in Iraq. Ugly murderous hypocrites have no shame so they moved the goal post to the removal of Saddam Hussein. Now that Saddam is in custody, what can possibly be the reason for maintaining the US presence there? Yes, good old colonialism. For the US to leave now would be to give up its real booty why it really went there in there in the first place; oil, regional control and cheap labour.


In contrast, the emotions expressed in the Islamic world are not one of hate but anger. There is a very important distinction. Hate has resulted from the US brainwashing their citizens by subjecting them to endless amounts of propaganda demonizing the Muslim community. From tabloids to mainstream press to Hollywood blockbusters, the portrayal of Muslims and Islam are simply racism. Muslims feel anger due to the circumstances imposed upon them by the US foreign policy.



The recent message of Osama Bin Laden was not one of hate like the Ku Klux Klan or like some rightwing media outlet. He has never uttered once “we hate all Americans and want to kill them” but this is the assumption in the minds of many Americans like they assume Iraq had somehow attacked the US or posed a significant threat to US security that have been carefully fun by the US government.


Osama Bin Laden’s central theme in his latest message is once of retribution. He was very precise when he referred to America’s insecurity arising not from its military weaknesses but its foreign policy. His message is not that of an irrational person who enjoys killing like the US soldiers apparently do with their high-tech weapons being detonated Hollywood styled like they are playing some video game. This made it was difficult for the US administration to respond to other than with one line of meaningless rhetoric.



The motives of Al-Qaeda are pretty much a taboo subject for a dutiful US media that fears culpability; it is much easier to paint Bin Laden as an irrational man bent on killing all infidels. Such superficial views are easy for its superficial masses to swallow in particular the hysterical Christian fundamentalist; the powerbase of the neo-cons and George Bush.

Meanwhile, the more liberal and intelligent Americans are still trying to figure out what happened on the 2nd of November. Unfortunately the train is moving out of the station and there is no more time to wait. Endlِsung for Fallujah and Ramadi is about to be delivered and Americans are poised to simply turn their heads away.

--------------------
Ayatollah Khamenei: Stand for Fallujah and Quds

Ayatollah al-Udhma Khamenei: Stand for Fallujah and
Quds

The American Government Will Face Failure in Its War
Against Islam

The following are excerpts from Ayatollah al-Udhma
Sayyed Ali Khamenei's Friday prayer khutbah delivered
It starts with the Arabic


For an Arabic text please visit:
http://www.leader.ir/ar/news.php?news_id=44

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Peace be upon our Islamic nation everywhere,
particularly the Iraqi and Palestinian oppressed
peoples.

The blessed month of Ramadan is that of God's
hospitality, Who is the overseer of its last 10 days,
whose nights are the best of nights and whose days are
the best of days. The messenger of God, may God's
peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny, used
to spend these days in worship and seclusion. It is in
these 10 days that Laylat al-Qadr and the martyrdom of
the commander of the faithful Ali Ibn-Abi-Talib, may
God's peace be upon him, is located.

This month and these 10 days are among the divine
opportunities to prepare the self, purify the heart
and accumulate piety. I ask God, may He be glorified,
to help us seize this opportunity and to grant success
to our greater Islamic nation in adhering to all of
Islam's obligations and its lofty provisions and to
prepare us better so as to confront whatever great
challenges are facing us.

Al-Quds day, which is on the last Friday in Ramadan,
is getting closer. This day is one of the most
important international arenas in which the will of
the nation - peoples and governments - should be
manifested in defending Palestine. The Palestinian
issue today is one of the greatest tragedies of the
whole world and the most painful. At the same time, it
is also the Islamic world's most sensitive issue in
recent times. The oppressed Palestinian people stand
alone firm and brave to defend themselves against the
aggressive enemy which shuns all moral and human
standards.

Regarding the issue of Palestine, there are three
matters which history cannot forget. The first are the
crimes committed by the usurping Zionist regime which
leave an indelible stain of disgrace on the forehead
of humanity. The second are the characteristics of
will, integrity and courage adorning the Palestinian
people, a matter which makes the Islamic nation proud
and constitutes a model for the oppressed peoples. The
third is the withdrawal of the regimes, which claim to
defend human rights, into themselves and their silence
over these serious crimes, and rather their support
for that criminal guilty hand, which human memory will
never forget over the ages.

Palestine will definitely and categorically return to
the Palestinian people one day. The seeds of this
tyranny and repression will, God willing, be uprooted.
But these facts will remain as an example in history.

The Iraqi people are also experiencing today a grave
disaster and a difficult ordeal. The evil hands of the
occupiers are seen behind the injustice, insecurity,
poverty and disasters befalling the Iraqi people. They
entered Iraq in the name of defending its people and
they are today the source of these people's plight and
their tragedy. They have insulted Iraq's dignity,
pillaged its riches, destroyed its structures and
killed the innocent civilians - men, women and
children - everywhere. The Islamic nation is living in
grief as a result of what is befalling the injured
Iraq. The massacres which are befalling the Iraqi
towns - Al-Fallujah and the others - have become daily
practices by the occupying forces. But the occupiers
will only reap thorns and colocynths from their acts.
Iraq is not a palatable mouthful which the occupier
can swallow. The great Iraqi people are today hostile
to America with all their existence. All the peoples
of the Islamic world are increasingly resentful and
indignant of America. The Americans will face failure
in their war against Islam.

I advise the brothers and sisters in Iraq to maintain
their unity and national determination and not to
allow the enemy to succeed in provoking national or
sectarian sedition. They should not allow the enemy to
succeed in provoking national or sectarian sedition.

Our people's heart is with the Iraqi people. It has
always been like this throughout history. Lean years
have passed during which the malicious and dissolute
Saddamist regime had tried to separate between the two
peoples by a war imposed on both of them. That regime
was destined today to the dustbin of history and the
Iraqi and Iranian peoples are still tied to each other
with brotherhood and blood ties which, God willing,
will multiply.

Anonymous voices which also aim today to separate
between the Iranian and Iraqi peoples, as though there
were emanating from the era of Saddam's fall or from
Saddam's mouth, will not be able to achieve the desire
of their masters, the Americans, to separate between
us and the Iraqi people.

I pray to God Almighty to hold back the foreigners'
evil against our nation and against the Iraqi and
Palestinian peoples, disappoint the tyrant America,
wipe out the Zionist regime and make Islam and Muslims
great. God's victory is close.

People, I advise you and myself to fear God, abide by
His orders, avoid the sins and be serious in obeying
Him. Be an opponent to the tyrant and a supporter to
the wronged. I pray to God to forgive you and me.

In the Name of God, the Compassion, the Merciful: By
the time through the ages. Verily man is in loss,
except those who believe and do good deeds, exhort one
another to the truth and exhort one another to
patience. (The Holy Quran, 103).

May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.


Excerpts from the second khutbah:

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

. . . At this point, I would like to discuss two
issues very briefly - God willing - before addressing
our Arab brothers in a few sentences that I have
written down. The first two issues concern the
sensations over our nuclear program and the issue of
Quds, the problem of Palestine and the rally planned
for next Friday (12 November) in which the Iranian
nation as well as other nations will participate
powerfully and enthusiastically.

Nuclear issue

The sensation over the nuclear issue, is in fact a hue
and cry raised by our opponents. It is irrational. One
can understand America's motive. Its motive is clear.
As to the others who raise the hue and cry in this
arena, some are under the influence of America and
some are misled. At any rate, the motive of America
and the motive of the enemies of the Iranian nation,
the enemies of our country and the Islamic Republic
system, is clear.

Let me say one short sentence: the centers of global
power, who wish to monopolize the entire world, are
opposed to any development which helps a nation to
achieve national independence, self-reliance and
national strength. This is the nature of the
hegemonist world order. In the domineering world
order, the centers of global hegemony view the rest of
the world as a morsel (which should be gobbled up).
Everything has to be placed at their disposal - the
financial resources of the world, its sources of
wealth, its markets and manpower have to be placed at
the disposal of their particular centers.

This is the basis for a hegemonist world order. By a
hegemonist world order, we mean a chain of states and
governments, backed by companies and economic and
financial institutions, which are the real
policy-makers today.

West wants to control access to technology

Suppose that those companies which are favored by the
current American administration, wanted to move into
the Middle East in order to create new sources of
wealth for themselves or avoid bankruptcy or get hold
of the oil resources in the region or defend the
Zionist government and businessmen. For any of these
purposes, they need to have a strong presence in the
Middle East. So what do they do? They wage a war
against Iraq. Once you look into details of waging a
war and organizing a military presence with all the
losses they entail, you realize that it is rooted back
in the political and financial ill intentions of the
powers behind the scenes in the powerful countries of
the world. That is the way it is.

Therefore, on the basis of such calculations, they
reject any attempt by any country to improve its
national independence and its self-relied progress.
They are ready to give the technology, but not in a
self-sufficient form. They are ready to give aircraft,
but to a country which will not even open the packages
of spare parts to know what is inside. It is their
engineers who have to go and install a part and remove
the broken one.

They were-prepared to build a nuclear power station
for the satanic Pahlavi regime (the former Shah of
Iran) because he was subservient and did as they said.
However, when it came to the Islamic Republic, they
said no. However, the Islamic Republic is a sort of a
state that has the capability to learn the technology
of producing nuclear fuel that they refuse to supply,
thanks to the round-the-clock efforts of its youth,
its engineers and other graduates working under the
efficient management. Such achievements taste bitter
to them, and that is why they are confronting the
issue.

Iran's success in becoming self-sufficient

Well, you can see that the system of the Islamic
Republic was created. From the early days, the
dominating powers realized that the system of the
Islamic Republic was a threat to their hegemonist
objectives. They understood this and, therefore, began
their opposition from the start. They felt the threat
not because of the developments in Iran alone, but
because what we say in Iran is new. This is a new
statement which is appealing to the Islamic world. The
words of the Islamic Republic and the new ideas of the
Islamic Republic are attractive on the international
arena. They undermine many of their foundations.

They knew these things, but they kept on comforting
themselves by saying: the Islamic Republic will not
survive anyway. They thought so because in a world
where science and technology utter the first word and
where acquiring science and technology creates wealth,
any country deprived of science and technology and the
target of sanctions will automatically perish. Such a
country will resemble a sapling that is deprived of
water and light. Such a sapling will die gradually,
without the need to cut it down. This was the
assumption of our enemies. Therefore in the early days
of the revolution, they used to say that the Islamic
Republic will collapse within a couple of months, a
year or five years at the most. They kept on giving
themselves the glad tidings that the Islamic Republic
was going to go sooner or later. They subjected us to
economic sanctions, scientific sanctions and
technological embargo. Moreover, they imposed the war
on our country, while offering every support to our
antagonist in the war. They were hoping that the
Islamic Republic would cave-in and die under all these
problems.

Now, after 25 years or so, they can see that the
Islamic Republic has shot out from beneath the debris
and stood firm on its feet. They can see that the
Islamic Republic is relying on itself and full of hope
about its own achievements. They can see that this
Republic is optimistic about its future. They can see
that we have made progress in the spheres of science
and technology. These are the facts and they
understand this fact. They can see that the Islamic
Republic has achieved the highest level in some very
important and sensitive subjects. For instance, the
same nuclear technology that you are witnessing.
Dozens of countries in the world use nuclear fuel, but
very few of them can produce their own. It is over
this issue that they have created the Iranian nuclear
sensation. Perhaps only 10 countries can produce their
own nuclear fuel, one of which is Iran.

The knowledge of stem cells, to which I have referred
several times, has been developed by our faithful,
committed and revolutionary young people in their
laboratories. They have been able to produce,
duplicate, freeze and use stem cells in their
laboratories. They have been able to inject these
cells in hearts and bone marrow. Such advanced,
complicated and important work has been done here.

Some world scientists attended a seminar here in Iran
about eight months ago, and could not believe what
they saw. They were surprised. Iran is among the top
10 countries in the world in this field.

Iran is also advanced in developing infrastructure,
including constructing dams. During the Taghut period
(ex-Shah's era), between the time when dam
construction started in Iran and the fall of the Shah,
10 or 12 dams were constructed in the country by
foreigners all of which had plenty of technical
faults. Following the Revolution, about 70 dams have
been designed, many of which have been constructed.
They are in different sizes and styles, including
concrete and earth dams. The mass construction of dams
with indigenous technology and by our own experts has
made us one of the top five or six countries in the
world.

There are many such achievements in different
industries, including military, infrastructure, or
even in cultural aspects.

They want to damage the strong pillars of our culture
with their termites and I should say they are doing
ugly things in the cultural field. Nevertheless,
today, the genuine Islamic culture and philosophy as
well as the Islamic sciences are gradually moving
forward across the world. This has raised eyebrows. .
.

Well they see that the Islamic Republic has risen up
from underneath the rubble. They expected us to die
under it . The Islamic Republic is now standing
against them with broad shoulders, a lively nation and
a young people, ignoring their threats. So they are
angry, that is why the enemy gets angry.

They accuse us of making nuclear weapons. No, we are
not thinking of making nuclear weapons. I have
repeatedly said that our nuclear weapon is our nation.
Our nuclear weapon is all these young people. We do
not need nuclear weapons. A country with these
faithful young people and such a unified nation does
not need nuclear weapons. The production, preservation
and use of nuclear weapons are all problematic. We
have also expressed our religious view. It is clear
and everyone knows.

This is not their problem. They are saying nonsense
and they know it themselves. They are unhappy to see
the Islamic Republic making so much a progress, this
is the problem.

Enemy wants to split leadership

The enemy gets angry at certain things. We should
remain vigilant. Our enemy is unhappy with our
national unity and wants to disrupt it. The enemy is
unhappy with unity of views and opinion among the
high-ranking officials of the country. When they see
that the president, the Majlis Speaker, the Judiciary
chief and other officials speak in a same way on a
particular subject, they burn in anger. They become
upset and want to split us.

You heard that in the past couple of years, they
raised the issue of dual governance. Some gullible
people in the country repeated their words. Dual
governance means that the leaders of the country
should fight over major issues. Dual governance is
undesirable and harmful. It is a deadly poison. It is
clear that the authorities of a country will never
think in the same way on every policy and subject. It
is not possible to have one thought prevail in a
country in all spheres. This is not what they want.
What they want is differences over principles.

They are upset by seeing faithful, active, committed
and enthusiastic directors and managers taking affairs
in their hands and directing the country in line with
the Islamic principles and national interests.

They are unhappy that the people support the
government. They are unhappy that our people have the
sprit of Jihad in them and are pious. They are unhappy
about our young people taking part in religious
ceremonies. The hearts of the enemies of the Iranian
nation will be filled with sorrow if they see the
ceremonies of these nights of vigilance (marking the
anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Ali [AS]) when
various strata of young people take part, shed tears,
soften their hearts and bring them closer to one
another.

Alhamdulillah, the Iranian nation is alert and
vigilant, but we need to be more vigilant and aware.
They would like political turmoil in this country.
They do not want political stability and tranquility
in this country. They want the people to perpetually
clash with one another. They want this person to speak
against that person and that person to speak against
this one. They would like turmoil and continuous
clashes in the university, bazaar, politics, offices
and among workers. That is what they want and that is
what they are concentrating their entire efforts on.

The nation should be vigilant, young people should be
alert, various strata of the people should be aware.
That was the first issue.

Palestine

The second issue concerns the issue of Palestine. The
marches which you will conduct next week (next Friday
12 November, marking Al-Quds Day, designated as the
day of international solidarity with the people of
Palestine) are a very important matter and should not
be thought of lightly.

There are three prominent matters in the issue of
Palestine to which I will also refer in my Arabic
sermon.

There are three prominent matters in the issue of
Palestine which history will not forget. History will
not forget any of these three points. The first point
concerns the unprecedented tyranny and oppression
which the Zionists are carrying out against the people
of Palestine today. That is something which history
will never forget. After suffering a great deal of
torment and calamity, a young person sacrifices his
own life in order to deal a blow against the usurper
of his own homeland. He is killed while doing that and
becomes a martyr. Later, they (Israeli troops) enter
and destroy the house of that young person, the house
of his parents and torture and torment his family.

They enter cities and camps with tanks. They attack
and demolish homes. They destroy farms and kill the
people. The killing of Palestinian young people,
children, civilian old men and women has become an
everyday event these days. This is a very bizarre
development. That is a truly historic event which
history will not forget. That was one point.

The second point which history will not forget
concerns the legendary resistance and patience of the
Palestinian nation. That will also remain in history
forever. A besieged nation, on its own, surrounded by
enemies, resisting in such a way, putting up with
hunger, suffering the sorrow of the death of their
children and young people, putting up with the
destruction of their homes, farms and unemployment.
Right now there are a few million Palestinians living
there. Not all of them belong to parties and groups.
They are a nation made up of women, men, children,
young and old people. They are resisting powerfully.
Well done to them. Well done to them. What a steadfast
nation that is. That will also remain in history. That
is the second brilliant point in this issue which will
draw the attention of people throughout history.

The third point concerns the silence of the
international community and governments. These
European gentlemen who are so in love with the issue
of human rights and care about human rights, are
watching those events taking place in front of their
eyes. However, on many occasions they remain silent
and on many other occasions, they even support the
aggressor.

That is truly astonishing. Let's leave America aside
for the time being. America is an accomplice itself.
The hands of American administrations are stained with
the blood of Palestinians right up to their arms. If a
court was to rule in the Palestinian case, the accused
would not be only Sharon and the Zionists. The
Americans accused in this case are also people such as
Bush, his gangs and American administrations. They are
also in the first line of the parties accused in this
case. Let's leave them aside for now.

The issue concerns the international community, the UN
and the European governments which continuously speak
of human rights and do not really understand or
respect human rights. Other governments are also party
to this. The silence of Muslim governments is indeed
astonishing.

Very well, what could nations do about those three
fundamental and sensitive issues? They could come to
the streets on Al-Quds Day, chant slogans, clinch
their fists and show their support for the combatant,
struggling and resistant Palestinian nation, even if
their governments do not allow or cannot help them. To
say to the Palestinian nation: You should know that
our hearts are with you.

That will warm their hearts. That would be a great
help...

--------------------

Mosques bombed as fighting rages in Falluja

Almost half of the mosques in the Iraqi city of Falluja have been destroyed as US warplanes launch air strikes and fierce fighting on the ground continues.

An Iraqi journalist told Aljazeera that US forces on Wednesday resumed attacks on the city, targeting Julan in the northwest to al-Jughaivi in the northeast.

Fadil al-Badrani said there are an estimated 120 mosques in the city.

"Almost half of the city's mosques have been destroyed after being targeted by US air and tank strikes," al-Badrani added.

Fierce clashes also erupted between armed fighters and the US forces thrust deeper into the city in the early hours, he said.

Machinegun, mortar and rocket fire shook the city as planes made several bombing runs over Julan district in the space of 15 minutes, a Reuters reporter said.

Smoke was rising from houses just beyond Falluja's captured rail station, where marines and Iraqi forces have a base.

Marines said their opponents showed no signs of giving up, even though US forces penetrated to the centre of the city, west of Baghdad, after an offensive launched on Monday night.


Resistance strong

A tank platoon that moved along Falluja's main street saw fighters who had just come under mortar fire climb onto rooftops and fire rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and machineguns.

"There are lots of them. We took heavy fire," Gunnery Sergeant Ishmail Castillo told Reuters. "They opened up on my tank. They don't look like they are going to cave in."

Castillo said his tank had killed six guerrillas and that two marines were wounded in fighting. "One of the marines was hit in the head by RPG shrapnel," he said.

"They hit us from one area and then another right afterwards. There is in-depth organisation. There were small-arms attacks all night," he said.

Al-Badrani said US forces had taken some casualties. "Two US military tanks have been so far destroyed in Julan neighbourhood where the most violent clashes are taking place," he said.

"Three US armoured vehicles have been also destroyed in other parts of the city. The clashes are very violent. Fighters have showed up from other neighbourhoods and streets the US forces are unfamiliar with.

"US forces entered central Falluja city at around 12.00 (Iraqi local time) but were fiercely attacked by the fighters," al-Badrani said.

"They withdrew from the area after half an hour, heading for their positions in the northern parts of the city," he added.

Residents told al-Badrani the crews of two US tanks deserted their vehicles in Julan leaving them to be seized by fighters.

Resistance

Marine tanks that pushed through central Falluja on Tuesday night met tough resistance.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday evening that at least 10 US and two Iraqi soldiers had died in the offensive unleashed by 10,000 US soldiers and marines and 2000 Iraqi troops.

US marines poured hundreds of rounds into rebel positions and blasted buildings with tank shells on Tuesday, but also took casualties with bloodied troops stretchered away.

American aircraft destroyed one building in Falluja with a laser-guided bomb after US and Iraqi forces came under fire from insurgents inside, the US military said.

Explosions could be heard across Falluja after nightfall, but large-scale fighting appeared to have eased.

"I think we are looking at several more days of tough urban fighting," said the US commander in charge of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Thomas Metz.

Children dying

The assault on Falluja, where residents say wounded children are dying from lack of medical help, food shops are closed and power is cut, angered Muslim clerics who urged Iraqis to boycott January elections seen as vital to peace.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who on Tuesday imposed a night curfew on Baghdad for an indefinite period, got a personal taste of the clerics' anger at a Ramadan iftar meal the same day.

"You have to stop fighting for four or five hours," Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni official in the Religious Affairs Ministry, urged Allawi before the evening meal, a pool reporter said.

"There are a lot of injured that have to be taken care of. Give them time to rescue the injured. There are civilians getting killed in Falluja. You are responsible for their lives
in front of God," Dulaimi declared.

"As you know, we tried every alternative before resorting to military force," Allawi replied. "We have nothing against the civilians of Falluja ...They are the sons of this country."

Boycott call

In a move which could undermine the 27 January polls, the influential Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) urged a boycott.

"The clerics call on the ... people of Iraq to boycott the coming elections that they want to hold on the remains of the dead and the blood of the wounded from Iraqi cities like Falluja and others," said Harith al-Dhari, its top official.

Residents say scores of civilians died and for those struggling to live in the city, life is grim.

Many of the city's 300,000 people had fled to escape air strikes and artillery bombardments preceding the assault. The US military said about 150,000 residents had left.

Those left behind say they have no power and use kerosene lamps. They keep to ground floors for safety, some living in shattered homes because it is too dangerous to move.

--------------------
US officer estimates at least 10 days needed to clear the city of Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US marines expect to take complete control of the Iraqi rebel bastion of Fallujah within 48 hours if their assault continues on course, a US military officer said.

If everything goes as planned we will take full control of the city in the next 48 hours," the officer said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officer said the marines would need up to a week to make the northeast corner of Fallujah safe "and at least 10 days to clear the city."

"For now we are clearing pockets of resistance," the officer said. "We had lots of IEDs," military speak for home-made explosive devices, left for unwary troops, and a favourite technique of insurgents in Iraq (news - web sites).

Acting on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi after weeks of heavy bombardment, US marines backed by Iraqi troops Monday stormed Fallujah, west of Baghdad, in an assualt dubbed Operation Dawn.

The offensive is aimed at breaking the back of a tenacious insurgency so that elections planned for January can go ahead more smoothly and with wider participation.
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TWO BAGHDAD CHURCHES AND HOSPITAL BOMBED

BAGHDAD — Car bombs at two Baghdad churches — and outside a hospital treating the victims of those attacks — killed at least eight people and wounded dozens last night as a wave of blasts struck the Iraqi capital.

A car bomb exploded outside St. George's Catholic Church in southern Baghdad just before 6:30 p.m. local time, followed just minutes later by a second outside St. Matthew's Church.

Victims from both blasts, some carried by injured friends or relatives in torn and bloodstained clothes, were rushed to the Yarmouk hospital. A doctor said at least three people had been killed and 40 injured.

A few hours later, a suicide car bomber plowed into four police cars parked outside the hospital entrance, killing at least five policemen, police said.

Several more explosions echoed across the city later in the night, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

The wave of bombings swept Baghdad as U.S. Marines began their full-scale offensive to capture the rebel Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah, 32 miles west of the capital.

In the latest of almost daily bombings on the main road to Baghdad Airport, at least three people were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack on a checkpoint earlier in the day.

Rebels fighting Iraq's interim government and its backers have stepped up attacks around the country since U.S.-led forces began building up for their assault on Fallujah, seen as the epicenter of the militant rebellion.

Iraq's Christian minority has also been targeted. Five churches were hit in a string of bombings in October that seemed designed to intimidate the Christian community, already shaken by a series of attacks that killed several people in August.

Iraq's 650,000 Christians — mostly Chaldeans, Assyrians and Catholics — comprise about 3 percent of the population.

--------------------

BBC embedded reporters, accounts of street battles in fallujah

Reporters' log: Battle for Falluja

US marines are pushing into areas not yet under their control
US and Iraqi forces are continuing their assault against insurgents in the city of Falluja.

BBC correspondents in the region as well as in Washington and London bring you the latest updates on the attack. Where stated, some correspondents are embedded with US troops.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US marines inside Falluja :: 1300GMT
We moved on to a high-rise building and spent an hour and a half there, having initially gone to the roof because we spotted some Iraqis trying to surrender.

EMBEDDED REPORTERS
They can give general troop strength and casualty figures
They can report numbers of enemy POWs
They can give broad information about previous combat actions
Journalists cannot give specific details of locations
They cannot reveal the future plans of their unit
As soon as the translator stood up to take the surrender we came under heavy and sustained automatic and sniper fire from three different directions.

It took about an hour of calling in air strikes, of tanks coming to our support, to push the insurgents back.

We are now at the main road through Falluja. The battalion I'm with is pushing south of that main road. There are some 2km to go before Falluja is in US hands, but they do now have the centre, they do now have the north.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US marines inside Falluja :: 1236GMT
A company of US marines entered the centre of Falluja just before dawn. They quickly gained a foothold in the city's abandoned police station. It was vital for them to establish a strong position by sunrise.

As soon as there was light, the attacks began from all sides. We were fired on by a sniper sitting in a minaret, just 100 metres away.

The marines then called in tanks. It fired at the mosque, destroying the dome. Falluja is known as the city of mosques, but this afternoon these holy sites are right at the heart of the battle.

The marines say they don't like to fire on mosques, but they have no choice when they're used by the militants to launch attacks.

American military sources are claiming to have killed hundreds of the insurgents so far. Some humanitarian aid has reached the hard pressed people of the city.

We don't know how many are still trapped here, but this afternoon the battle is still raging.




Quil Lawrence :: EMBED with US forces at Falluja :: 1215GMT
We have seen continued attacks not just here but in areas between Falluja and Ramadi. Convoys have been ambushed. One amulance was hit by a car bomb.


In Falluja what's important is not a matter of the percentage they have taken, but how much they can control over the long term.

They need to provide a plan to turn the people away from the resistance and insurgents and make them believe their town will be rebuilt sooner if they co-operate with the interim government.

Talking to commanders they have no illusions about winning over the entire country with this one battle, but they could not leave a part of the country totally under the control of insurgents, for reasons of morale, and because Falluja allowed insurgents to openly set up bomb factories.

There have been at least 10 US deaths, and that's all I can confirm, and the Iraqi National Guard said two of their forces were killed. No-one has accounts of insurgent or civilian dead. It will be difficult to tell them apart.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 1110GMT
Commanders say things are progressing and they expect to control all of the city quite soon.

There are fights in the centre of the city itself. Insurgents have fired from at least two mosques, and troops don't want to go in there because of sensitivities. This makes things difficult for the US.

They are a disadvantage with this hard urban fighting because we see that when fired upon, the marines hit back with overwhelming fire power. And they don't want to destroy buildings, in order that people may come back to the city.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 1015GMT
The marines are fighting in the geographical centre and moving towards the south, where the forces are encountering sporadic insurgent fire. It's not as organised though as they thought it would be. We've heard fire supporting the US forces on the ground.


As far as civilian casualties go it's been eerily quiet, as was the case last April when they went into Falluja. It's difficult to get an independent observer on ground to verify the situation, but it's believed tens of thousands of people are still inside the city and we expect there are casualties.

The forces had dropped leaflets telling people to stay in their houses and not to get involved in the campaign.

It may be the leaders of the insurgents have slipped away and chosen not to make Falluja their last stand. There's talk that some have made it into Ramadi, or have decided to conduct a guerrilla war rather than stay here where they're outmanned and outgunned.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 0856GMT
US marines say American forces now hold seventy per cent of Falluja. They're battling through the centre of the city and have captured the main police station and the mayor's office.

As the offensive continues, American artillery and air power are backing up the forces on the ground. Insurgents are being pushed towards the southern end of the city. Falluja is surrounded, and a marine spokesman says the insurgents have nowhere to run.

The offensive has not been without cost. So far ten American troops and two Iraqi soldiers have been killed. There is political fallout as well.

The Sunni clerics association of Muslim scholars is calling for a boycott of elections in January, in protest of the American move into Falluja.

For the same reason, a main Sunni political party has withdrawn from the interim Iraqi government.


Caroline Hawley :: Baghdad :: 0825GMT
We are already seeing political fallout from Falluja. It's a controversial operation but there are many people who support it, because they believe something had to be done to stop what was happening there.

The abduction of Iyad Allawi's relatives seems to have been the closest insurgents could possibly have got to him. Allawi gets death threats every day and it's extremely difficult to get anywhere near him, such is his security. A spokesman said he thought this could be some kind of revenge attack for Falluja.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 0820GMT
We didn't get much opposition until shortly after dawn, when we got steady sniper fire coming in from the roof of the police station.

The marines have taken a foothold right in the centre and they're pushing through across the main road. There is now about 2km of the city not in marines' hands, but they are making steady progress, and according to one military source have killed hundreds of insurgents.

But they won't give any exact figure. There are a lot of insurgents out there. They are confident but are not setting out a timeline in any way.

We started to clear a small building, I think a school building. There was sniper fire and some Iraqis came out with a white flag. As soon as the forces stood up to indicate they wouldn't fire upon the people, we encountered very heavy fire coming at us from all positions.

There was then a very heavy battle which raged for about an hour and a half and this was pretty scary.


Claire Marshall :: Baghdad :: 0740GMT
The interim Iraqi prime minister's spokesman, George Sadr, has confirmed to the BBC that Iyad Allawi's cousin has been taken hostage. His cousin's wife was also kidnapped, along with another relative.

It's understood that an armed gang raided their Baghdad home. The timing of these kidnappings doesn't seem to be coincidence. It comes three days after Iyad Allawi ordered an assault on the rebel stronghold of Falluja.

For many people in Iraq, particularly the country's Sunni minority, this has been a controversial move. As one Baghdadi resident commented to the BBC earlier, how can brother strike brother? These kidnappings appear to be one militant group's form of retribution.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 0528GMT
US marines are now right in the heart of Falluja, but have been waging a two-hour gun battle so far to gain control over it from the insurgents.

I'm with a company of the Marines 1-8. They have taken the police station and the mayor's offices in the centre of town. They moved in just before dawn without opposition.

First of all they blasted a hole in the outer wall of the compound using a tank, and then we took up positions on the roof of the police station.

Shortly after that we began taking sniper fire from a gunman apparently in the minaret of a mosque. We were pinned down for some time before a tank moved in on the mosque and also spotted a number of men with rocket-propelled grenades moving around the back of the mosque.

This mosque is about 100 metres from our position. The tank then fired a shell into the base of the mosque and we've been taking heavy small-arms fire since.

The marines have been replying with tank rounds - you just heard one there - with automatic fire. They have mortars and they may later call in an air strike.

So far, two marines have been very slightly injured - a rocket propelled grenade hit their armoured vehicle and one had concussion and one had a slight cut.

Otherwise the marines are okay. We're moving out now from the compound to try to clear the buildings around the mosque.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 0505GMT
Overnight we heard a lot less artillery fire. The operation has entered a sensitive stage: US forces want to take the city, but there has to be a city left to take.

There is a little bit of surprise that the insurgency is not as organised as they thought it would be.


TUESDAY

Nick Childs :: Pentagon :: 2002GMT
The number two US commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Thomas Metz, has said that the operation in Falluja has achieved its objectives on or ahead of schedule in the first 48 hours.

"I think we're looking at several more days of tough urban fighting," said Gen Metz, the overall operational commander for the Falluja mission.

Iraqi government forces involved in the operation have performed admirably, as Gen Metz put it.

He described casualties on the US side as light - about a dozen, he said, but he wouldn't be more specific; and he said he believed there had been very few civilian casualties.

Insurgent casualties he described as significant but acknowledged that many of the leaders - including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - had probably fled.

The insurgents are now fighting in small groups of three to six, he said, and without much coherence.

But according to him, the coming days will show whether US-led forces are pushing the enemy back, capturing or killing them, or whether the insurgents are just falling back.


Imogen Foulkes :: Geneva :: 1946GMT
Humanitarian organisations say they are deeply worried about the fate of civilians caught up in the fighting in Falluja.

Both the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed their concern and reminded the warring parties that civilians must be allowed access to food, water and medical care.

But since international aid agencies are no longer present in Iraq, it is extremely difficult for them to assess exactly how serious the situation is.

The UNHCR says tens of thousands of civilians have fled Falluja - no one really knows how many remain in the embattled city.

Aid workers are deeply frustrated that they can't help those in need; they are also concerned that the fighting is taking place without any independent humanitarian witnesses.

The Red Cross has called on the warring parties to take every possible precaution to spare civilians and has urged what it calls "distinction and proportionality" in military operations - a reminder that hospitals, schools and water and electricity supplies should not be targeted.

International agencies are trying to co-ordinate aid supplies with local organisations such as the Iraqi Red Crescent.



Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 1931GMT
US forces say they control at least a third of the city of Falluja a day after they launched a long-expected assault on the city.


So far, the American forces have captured three strategic objectives in the city.

Before entering Falluja, US Marines took the Falluja general hospital; they also control the main railway station on the edge of the city and a mosque they say insurgents were using as a meeting-point and a place to store weapons.

"Things have been changing - yesterday it was a timetable for the operations, and today everybody is optimistic about the way it goes, and we think it's going to end up in a very short time," the Iraqi interim prime minister's spokesman, Tahir al-Naqib, said.

The military operation to take Falluja may take a short time, but the test of its success will be whether it slows or halts the insurgency.


Caroline Hawley :: Baghdad :: 1737GMT
The assault on Falluja is meant to help pacify and prepare the country for nationwide elections.

But even before it began, there were fears and warnings from the UN that it could backfire.

Today an influential group of Sunni Muslim clerics is threatening to boycott the vote in protest at the offensive. The main Sunni political party has also announced it's withdrawing from the government.

Iraq is currently in a state of emergency. The interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has used his new powers to declare an indefinite night-time curfew here in the capital, Baghdad.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 1714GMT
A tank commander who has just returned from inside the city had told me that the insurgents had now run out of armour-piercing grenades.


"Whenever we see them we just kill them," he said. "The problem is catching them."

This will be the problem in general when the joint American and Iraqi force is fully in possession of Falluja. It's the problem the coalition has always faced against the rebels.

The operation in Falluja is now entering a new phase. The battle for the heart of the city is about to begin. But no one believes that victory in Falluja will spell the end of the insurgency.


Quil Lawrence :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 1707GMT
I'm at the main hospital in Falluja which was taken by Iraqi and US forces last night. We're now waiting to see if any casualties might come in for treatment.

But at the moment all of the roads and bridges out of the city are still closed so there would be no access if civilian casualties were to come through.

We've had a barrage of mortars and rockets and sniper fire all day. Night has just fallen and that gives the Americans a huge advantage because they have night vision equipment.

I haven't heard a shell come in for about half an hour. That's the longest period of silence we've had all day and I assume this is because the insurgents are now shooting blindly.


Nick Childs :: The Pentagon :: 1603GMT
Pentagon officials are giving few details about the fighting so far. Behind the scenes they say they believe the offensive is generally going according to plan.

Obviously there has been resistance, and one senior official said overall it has been less than expected so far.

But is that because the strategy has been working, because many of the insurgents have left or because the decisive battle has yet to be joined?

These are the questions the military planners are grappling with. Officials here acknowledge that many insurgents may have slipped away, but they still insist it'll be more difficult for them to regroup without Falluja.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces at Falluja :: 1515GMT
US officers here say things are going according to plan, that the plan is intact. Clearly people think things are going fairly well.

The military is very reluctant to talk about the injured or dead. One officer said: "This is not a numbers game. We knew there'd be a price to pay - we take the hits and move on."

At any time when there's fighting in an urban area it is difficult and there are casualties - but the US just doesn't know how high that price will be.


Quil Lawrence :: EMBED with US forces at Falluja :: 1505GMT
I can still see the battle unfolding across the river. The hospital where I am is just to the west of the city over the bridge.

You can see fierce fighting, though it has quietened down a little with the coming of darkness. The dark gives an advantage to the Americans because of their night vision equipment.

I imagine there must be many casualties considering the amount of gunfire I've seen. The Americans launch about 500 rounds to the insurgents' one, pelleting the insurgent area - so I imagine the amount of casualties is high.


Alastair Leithead :: Baghdad :: 1356GMT
While intense fighting continues in Falluja, it seems a number of the insurgents that the US-led forces are so keen to confront have moved to a neighbouring city.

Ramadi - a city of a similar size to Falluja - has been another focal point for insurgency, and hundreds of guerrilla fighters armed with heavy machine-guns and rocket-launchers have taken up positions and control much of the centre.

There are reports that the American forces withdrew from Ramadi's main streets to their bases on the outskirts of the city.

Elsewhere in the Sunni Triangle, a number of police officers have reportedly been killed or injured in Baquba by another well-planned raid on police stations, and a suicide car bomb in Kirkuk is thought to have claimed three lives.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 1310GMT

The trouble is the insurgents are now going to ground. So I think we can expect the territory of Falluja to be under joint American and Iraqi command in quite a short time, but after that the problem will be the wave of suicide bombings which American commanders expect to be unleashed.

The mopping up operation will be lengthy and will not be easy.

There is outgoing mortar fire from the company I am with. They are in that famous euphemism "softening up" the target before they go in.

There are two plumes of black smoke now rising up from the targets which they've been hitting.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 1305GMT
The battalion I'm with has penetrated about a third of Falluja. There are parts of the city still to be reached so commanders expect this rapid pace to continue for a few more days.

The initial stages were about carving safe routes. Next troops will go down them - the battle for the heart of the city is yet to begin.

But with no independent reporters in Falluja it's hard to know the truth of what exactly the picture is there.

The US have killed the enemy wherever he has showed himself.

There are mortars going off right now behind me.

Falluja is only four kilometres across. Elements of the rest of the force have reached the centre but that doesn't mean they have it. The battalion I'm with have objectives there and this tempo will continue over the next 24 hours.

The guerrillas are doing what guerrillas do and are attempting to melt away. You will see the battlefield mutate and this isn't over by a long chalk.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces at Falluja :: 1220GMT
The troops are in control of the northern third of the city - I haven't been able to verify that they have controlled the heart of the city. They may well have reached there.

Essentially phase one is over - but now the fighting has to begin at the very heart of the city and I expect the tempo of the operation to be maintained.

I can't tell you about civilian casualties but there have been some military casualties - they won't give us numbers but they are lighter than might be expected.

One commander said wherever they saw insurgents they took them out and went on to the next. The insurgents are being forced back into smaller and smaller areas - it's now out into the bigger streets of the centre and there is hard fighting ahead.

The battalion I'm with has an elite battalion of Iraqi troops - the Iraqis are right there on the front line. A mosque was seized this morning by the coalition but it was Iraqi troops who went into it. Where these government buildings are seized it's Iraqis who go in first and raise the flag.


Caroline Hawley :: Baghdad :: 1210GMT
I presume the curfew is being imposed by Iyad Allawi because of the current instability and the fear of further attacks. Allawi said Iraqi soldiers were going in to avenge victims of terrorist attacks, but there is a real fear that terrorists will take revenge for this assault.

One party called the Islamic Party, the main Sunni Muslim party in government, has withdrawn in protest at the operation in Falluja. A spokesman said this was the wrong approach, that violence would only beget violence. There is a fear that this operation in Falluja will increase stability in the run up to elections.

It will be important to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. Tens of thousands have already left the city - we spoke to a resident who escaped to the outskirts this morning and spoke of a terrible situation there with bodies littering the streets in some areas and water and electricity being cut.


Sebastian Usher :: BBC Monitoring, Caversham :: 1205GMT
Many Arab papers dismiss the Iraqi government's justification for the assault on Falluja - that it was the only way to bring some security to Iraq.

Saudi Arabia's Al Watan says the real aim is for the Americans to impose their own order on the country in a way that will benefit Israeli political interests rather than the Iraqi people, and Al-Quds Al Arabi says the attack is just an excuse for the Americans to get even with and punish the Iraqis.

As one commentator says "God won't tolerate such an attack on innocent people."

Other papers criticise the interim Iraqi government for giving the go-ahead to the operation, saying that if it really wanted to build security, it would do so by improving humanitarian and political conditions in the country.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 1140GMT
We know the US marines have been moving street to street and are progressing quickly - commanders here are saying they control at least a third of the city. It would be no surprise if they were in the heart of the city as is being reported now.

It may be that they have just arrived in the centre - but arriving there and holding it definitively are two different things, especially here in a city like this which has been controlled by insurgents for so long.

The insurgents are outgunned but what they have on their side is the cover of the city. Marines say they are firing back and their fire is punishing.


Quil Lawrence :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 1110GMT
I'm on the west bank with a combined marine and army unit. I can see a huge black cloud of smoke - the largest I've seen in the last two days. Marines are now approaching from the other side and are approaching a link up with those from this side.

I can hear small arms fire and today we're getting occasional sniper fire. Marines are responding disproportionately - they fire back with heavy machine guns.

Insurgents have one advantage, which is that they blend in with the population. I haven't seen any civilians today - yesterday I saw some waving white flags as they left.

Shortly after I saw one group leave, mortars came in close to their position. This demonstrates the bind the marines are in - they want to avoid civilian casualties but if they do nothing they are setting themselves up to be hit by insurgents dressed as civilians.


Quil Lawrence :: EMBED with US forces in Falluja :: 0935GMT
I'm just across the river on the west side of the city near the main hospital, seized by the US and Iraqis two nights ago. The marines are advancing and I can track their progress by the small arms fire. Black smoke is rising where buildings have been hit.

I've heard comments saying the operation is going a little quicker and is a little rougher than expected. I can't say how many numbers of insurgents the forces have met - but there were skirmishes this morning and they're taking sniper fire at the moment.

I heard some artillery a few minutes ago. At first I thought we were being shelled but it was shooting at an apartment.

The US soldiers have been gearing up for this for a long time. They seem almost excited to be getting there - some were preparing by listening to heavy metal music and one soldier told me it made it seem a bit more like a video game.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces at Falluja :: 0910GMT
I think the operation is going about as planned. The marines were expecting resistance and the insurgents have had months to prepare for this. This kind of fighting is always complicated.

The military is reluctant to talk about those killed or injured. We know 10 marines were injured in the early fighting, but the marines don't give out details because they don't want to help the insurgents to refine their attacks.

I don't think this will be an easy job but it's in the forces' best interests to get this over with. They don't want to alienate the population. However, they have been using homes as shelters and the only way they can do this is to use heavy weaponry, and this means destroying buildings.

But the people returning would like to have a city to return to and that's why this is such a tricky task. It will be up to the insurgents what kind of battle they fight. This could be their last stand or they might continue to try to attack the forces wherever and whenever they can.


Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces at Falluja :: 0846GMT
The marines are trying to move forward into Falluja after a fierce night of fighting. They're moving street by street. In some cases, going house to house, looking for insurgents.

The US forces are trying to operate under their rules of engagement and are trying to avoid taking civilian lives.

It's a tricky situation because the fight is active and they will return punishing fire if they are being fired upon. This must be a very terrifying situation for civilians caught nearby.

The troops I'm with say the insurgents have been intimidating the inhabitants of Falluja for many months now there are claims that some civilians are being used as human shields.


Alastair Leithead :: Baghdad :: 0827GMT
The first shockwaves from the assault on Falluja have struck Baquba - another city in the Sunni triangle, where police stations have been targeted by guerrilla fighters.


US forces storm the main hospital in the city of Falluja

There are reports of a number of police officers being killed or wounded by insurgents, attacking police stations with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades.

Also in Kirkuk, a suicide bomber blew up his car at a National Guard base in the city. There were some reported fatalities.

And here in Baghdad, the largest Sunni Muslim political party has withdrawn from the interim government in a protest against the attack on Falluja. The Iraqi Islamic party has pulled its minister of industry from the cabinet.

It's a symbolic move but one which will be a blow to the interim government as it tries to encourage as many groups as possible to take part in the elections planned for January.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 0814GMT
It's already apparent that marines are having to fight every step of the way into Falluja.

The battalion I'm with went in to the city 12 hours ago and has managed to get a kilometre into the city. That shows every street, almost every house, is being contested.

What they're facing is insurgents darting out, firing at them and a lot of artillery has been called in to support their efforts.

The drive is still going on now. Twelve hours after the initial first wave went in, there is still the sound of heavy fire emanating from Falluja.

It's believed that dozens, if not more than 100 insurgents have been killed. Meanwhile the marines say they have reached one of their first objectives - the largest mosque in Falluja.

They say this is used as a meeting place for leaders of the insurgency. They claim it is heavily fortified and an arms cache and that people who work with the coalition, and are caught by the insurgents, are taken there and killed.

They're now wondering if they'll find bodies when they go in.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 0528GMT
More than 12 hours after the assault began, the sounds of battle are still constant from Falluja.

Overnight the battalion I'm with, the 1-8, took its first serious casualties as the marines advanced street by street, clearing out gangs of insurgents armed with rocket propelled grenades.

Companies from the 1-8 have now advanced one kilometre into Falluja. They are now at the al-Hyderi mosque and are preparing to storm it along with Iraqi troops who will actually take possession of this sensitive site.

The marines' intelligence officer said the al-Hyderi mosque - one of the biggest in Falluja - was used as a meeting place for leaders of the insurgency and had both weapons and armed men inside

The marines also believe that Iraqis suspected of working with the coalition are taken to al-Hyderi, tortured and killed.



Quil Lawrence :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 0510GMT
I am standing on the top of a bombed-out building just across the river, maybe 200 or 300 metres from Falluja.

Right now I am seeing extremely intense fire fights within the city.




We've seen helicopter gunships swooping in and firing missiles at targets.

At the moment we are receiving very little fire from across the river to this position.

At the moment it seems that the insurgents within the city have been distracted by a different force.


MONDAY

Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 2205GMT
There are still steady explosions coming from the city, but the intensity of the battle in the early evening has eased slightly.

I am still watching tracer fire going into the city.


But the initial force that has pushed in has now managed to enter, and from the sound of the explosions, seems to have got some way into Falluja.

It has been an evening of heavy air strikes, an evening of tanks rumbling about and several huge explosions, some of which are devices to detonate roadside bombs, and some of which are weapons caches being detonated.

There has been opposition. Several artillery strikes have been called in to deal with roaming groups of men firing rocket-propelled grenades at the tanks.

But that opposition appears to be easing.

One marine officer said to me that their operation is very much on schedule.



Jennifer Glasse :: EMBED with US forces at Falluja :: 2051GMT
US officials say they will not stop until their forces control all of Falluja.

The main thrust of the initial assault on Falluja came from the north of the city, where US and Iraqi forces took the main railway station.

The long-expected offensive then followed from all sides as thousands of American troops, some with Iraqi forces at their sides, moved into Falluja.

US marines and soldiers are inside several parts of the city and are advancing.

Along the way they have encountered explosive booby traps along the roads set by insurgents who have had months to plan for this offensive. US forces were using explosives to detonate the traps.

As forces advanced, Falluja was dark. The sound of artillery, gunfire and US planes overhead punctuated that night-time scene.

US tanks and ground forces are working to move further into the city. They have cut off all roads in and out of Falluja to prevent any insurgents from leaving.


Nick Childs :: The Pentagon :: 1915GMT
The top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, has said he expects the battle to retake the insurgents' stronghold of Falluja will be tough.

Speaking by telephone to Pentagon reporters from his headquarters in Baghdad, he said it involved some 10-15,000 US and Iraqi forces with the Americans providing the majority of the forces.

General Casey said mission was codenamed al-Fajr, or dawn - a name which, he said, had been chosen by the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi.

He acknowledged that the fight for Falluja would be a tough one and that there would be other tough fights to follow and while he believed that some of the insurgents may have slipped away, he said others have moved in.

He said he expected them probably to fall back to the centre of the city where there could be what he described as a major confrontation.

General Casey also said he believed some 50-70% of the civilian population had also left the city, although that could still mean perhaps 100,000 remain.


Paul Adams :: BBC News Centre, London :: 1742GMT
We know that a large number of civilians have left the city. Its population is between 250,000 and 300,000 people. The Americans are suggesting that 80 or 90 percent of the population may have left. But it also suits them to say that.

If that is the case, it will make the job that much easier. If they find themselves in a more or less deserted city the battle against the 3,000 to 5,000 militants would make the operation much quicker.

They will want to carry out the operation as quickly as they can and to create as little "collateral damage" as possible. The whole point of this is to deliver the people of Falluja to the elections in January.


Nick Childs :: The Pentagon :: 1719GMT
I don't think anyone is under any illusions there are risks involved in the assault and that the assault on Falluja is a very risky undertaking.

But it is also a balance of risks and the political risks of doing it, the Americans and Mr Allawi feel, are outweighed by the risks of not doing it.

Clearly it was critical that Mr Allawi gave the green light publicly. Part of the strategy is that this is seen to be with the blessing of the interim Iraqi government and crucially Iraqi forces will be taking part.

The great concern here at the Pentagon is that they can win a military victory but lose the political battle because of the images of the assault and potentially high casualties.


Paul Wood :: EMBED with US forces near Falluja :: 1712GMT
The Americans are going in with both infantry and marine rifle companies supported by tanks, and with air power used to a very heavy extent.

We just felt a shock wave through us as what we believe was a few thousand pound bomb was dropped on targets on the perimeter of the city.

We're getting chat coming back over the radio that there is resistance. Put simply, when it shows itself they blow it away it's a simple as that.

The US are going in with overwhelming force. They are going in very quickly. They are going in with assets that the insurgents can't command.

But they do have a healthy respect for their opposition. The company commander here called them "plenty mean and plenty tough".

But he added that they were about to encounter a level of violence they couldn't imagine.

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Award-winning Indian novelist backs Iraqi resistance

Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, who will be presented this week with an Australian peace prize, has defended her views that people should join what she calls the Iraqi resistance.

The award of the 50,000 Australian dollar ($37,000) Sydney Peace Prize to the Bengal-born winner of the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things, sparked outrage in Australia, which has troops serving in Iraq.

Several critics said Roy's views on Iraq should have disqualified her.

Roy was awarded this year's prize for what its judges said was her advocacy in demanding justice for the poor and people displaced by dam projects, as well as her opposition to nuclear weapons.

In a television programme screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) last month, she called on people to "become the Iraqi resistance".

'Violent occupation'

She said activists and resistance movements "need to understand that Iraq is engaging in the frontlines of empire and we have to throw our weight behind the Iraqi resistance".

"We can't assume that resistance means terrorism because that would be playing right into the hands of the occupation"

But she told ABC radio on Wednesday that she did not mean people should engage in violence against multinational forces.

"One wasn't urging them to join the army, but to become the resistance, to become part of what ought to be non-violent resistance against a very violent occupation," she said, adding that the term resistance needed to be redefined.

"We can't assume that resistance means terrorism because that would be playing right into the hands of the occupation," she said.

Political influence

She also denied it was inappropriate for writers to try and influence political opinions. "I don't think how people's political views are influenced depends on the profession of the people who are influencing them," she said.

Roy, who will be presented on Thursday with the award, funded by the city of Sydney, previously branded US President George Bush as a "terrorist" and described Australia's military presence in Iraq as "inexcusable".

She has also accused Australia of genocide over what she believes to be its mistreatment of Aborigines, and is reportedly planning to donate her 50,000 Australian dollar peace prize to Aboriginal political activists.

The Sydney Peace Prize, no stranger to controversy, was awarded last year to prominent Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, unleashing a torrent of anger from Jewish groups.

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US 'pacifies' city but rebels take violence to rest of country

By Kim Sengupta in Camp Dogwood
10 November 2004


US forces reached the centre of Fallujah yesterday after hours of street fighting and barrages from artillery, tank and helicopter gunships. As night fell, the Americans announced that they had captured key strategic targets and were carrying out house-to-house searches.

The Pentagon said that at least 10 US and two Iraqi soldiers had died since the offensive began on Monday night. Reports of insurgents' deaths vary between 12 and 42. Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, claimed that troops had detained 38 insurgents entrenched at the hospital.

Even as US commanders were declaring that the rebel stronghold would be "pacified" very soon, the price being paid for the victory was becoming evident in the carnage being visited around the country. It appears that many of the insurgents who had been based in Fallujah slipped out of the city and moved to other parts of Iraq before the offensive.

The estimates given by the US military about the numbers of insurgents in Fallujah have varied. Two weeks ago it was claimed there were 6,000 heavily armed militants, including the Jordanian terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the city. However, small groups of fighters, sometimes no more than 20 strong, have attempted to engage the Americans, who vastly outnumber and outgun them, before fading away.

The explanation of what had happened to those missing fighters could be found, perhaps, in what happened elsewhere in Iraq yesterday.

Hundreds of armed men entered Ramadi, taking over government buildings, while in Baquba, north of Baghdad, 45 people, including 25 policemen were killed in a series of attacks. Eleven people died in bombings in Baghdad, and an attack on a National Guard headquarters in Kirkuk killed three people.

There was also political unravelling, with one of the main Sunni groups, the Iraqi Islamic Party, resigning from the Iraqi government in protest at the assault. "The American attack on our people in Fallujah has led and will lead to more killings and genocide without mercy from the Americans," said its leader, Mohsen Abdel Hamid. The Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential group of Sunni clerics, called for a boycott of next January's planned elections which were, it said, being held "over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah and the blood of the wounded".

There were reports from Fallujah that almost 500 Iraqi government troops * almost a battalion * had refused to fight alongside the Americans, a repetition of similar incidents when US forces attacked the city last April. In Washington, Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said: "I would characterise it as an isolated problem."

The government imposed an indefinite night-time curfew in Baghdad. Officials said there was "credible evidence" that militants escaping from Fallujah had regrouped in the capital and were planning more attacks.

Colonel Michael Formica, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, said in Fallujah that escaping fighters were a real problem. "My concern now is only one * not to allow any enemy to escape. As we tighten the noose around him, he will move to escape to fight another day. I do not want these guys to get out of here. I want them killed or captured as they flee".

Intermittent fighting was under way in the northern sectors of Fallujah, with at least two American tanks reported to be engulfed in flames. Despite meeting fierce and, at times, sustained resistance, senior officers of the army's Task Force, of the 1st Infantry Division, said they had not encountered any of the more than 120 "suicide cars" supposedly waiting for them packed with explosives. However, other units reported that they had found booby-trapped buildings.

By midday, US armoured units, attacking from the north, had made their way to the highway running from east to west through the city centre and crossed over into the southern part of the city. One of the objectives surrounded by US forces was the al-Hidra mosque half a mile inside the city. According to the American commanders, the mosque was being used as an a weapons dump and planning centre for militants, and will be captured in due course with Iraqi government troops leading the way.

US troops are using Fallujah's main railway station as a forward base and detention centre. Iraqi government troops brought in nine handcuffed prisoners from the Jolan area, where many of the militants are said to have gathered. They said two were Egyptians and one was Syrian.

Captain Robert Bodisch, a Marines tank company commander, said: "They are putting up a strong fight ... these people are hardcore ... A man pulled out from behind a wall and fired an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] at my tank. I have to get another tank to go back in there."

Local people claimed US warplanes bombed a clinic, causing many casualties. The main hospital was captured by US and Iraqi government forces on Monday, when, according to government figures, more than 40 "terrorists" were killed.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=581298

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Kidnappers Give Allawi 48 Hours To Halt Assault On Fallujah

(IMG:http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...0151507462.jpg)

Iyad Allawi. A militant group kidnapping three family members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Wednesday to kill them if Allawi doesn't order a withdrawal from the besieged Fallujah. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)

BAGHDAD, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- A militant group kidnapping three family members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Wednesday to kill them if Allawi doesn't order a withdrawal from the besieged Fallujah.

In a statement, the group known to be Ansar al-Jihad (Partisans of Holy War) claimed responsibility for the abduction and threatened to behead the three if Allawi fails to meet its demands in 48 hours.

"We demand the agent government liberate all the prisoners in Iraq, women and men, and lift the siege over Fallujah and stop the military action against the city," said the previously unknown group.

The authenticity of the statement, published on a website, could not be verified independently.

Earlier reports said that a first cousin of Allawi, the cousin's wife and his daughter-in-law were kidnapped on Tuesday evening from their house in Baghdad.

Three cars with at least six men inside pulled up to the house in Baghdad's southern district of Al-Kadisiya, from where they took Ghazi Allawi and his two family members, an official source was quoted as saying.

US soldier's eyes were injured in the battle.

Allawi, who leads the current Iraqi interim government, was the latest victim of the rampant wave of abduction. Over 100 foreigners and relatives of wealthy figures have been kidnapped in Iraq for political or financial purposes.

The abduction followed a joint US-Iraqi all-out offensive in Fallujah, a long-time rebel bastion since the war last year, to clear the city of insurgents.

Allawi issued this week the order to start a state of emergency across Iraq and authorized US and Iraqi forces to storm Fallujah. The iron-handed move has also aroused disputes among the Iraqi society.

There has been no report of suspension in the ongoing military action so far. Allawi often made remarks that his government would not bow to kidnappers and criminals.
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US Troops Reportedly Gassing Fallujah

FALLUJAH, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein’s alleged gassing of the Kurds in1988 .

“The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally-banned chemical weapons,” resistance sources told Al-Quds Press Wednesday, November10 .

The fatal weapons led to the deaths of tens of innocent civilians, whose bodies litter sidewalks and streets, they added.

“They use chemical weapons out of despair and helplessness in the face of the steadfast and fierce resistance put up by Fallujah people, who drove US troops out of several districts, hoisting proudly Iraqi flags on them. Resistance has also managed to destroy and set fire to a large number of US tanks and vehicles.

“The US troops have sprayed chemical and nerve gases on resistance fighters, turning them hysteric in a heartbreaking scene,” an Iraqi doctor, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press.

“Some Fallujah residents have been further burnt beyond treatment by poisonous gases,” added resistance fighters, who took part in Golan battles, northwest of Fallujah.

In August last year, the United States admitted dropping the internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq, despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the “horrible” weapon had not been used in the three-week invasion of Iraq.

After the offensive on Iraq ended on April 9 last year, Iraqis began to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter their cities.

Media Blackout

The sources said that the media blackout, the banning of Al-Jazeera satellite channel and subjective embedded journalists played well into the hands of the US military.

“Therefore, US troops opted for using internationally banned weapons to soften the praiseworthy resistance of Fallujah people.

“More and more, the US military edits and censors reports sent by embedded journalists to their respective newspapers and news agencies,” the sources added.

Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan had said Tuesday, November9 , would be decisive.

“Al-Shaalan declaration meant nothing but the use of chemical weapons and poisonous gases to down Fallujah fighters,” observers told Al-Quds Press.

The reported gassing stands as a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurdish community in the northern city of Halbja in 1988 .

While the West insisted that Saddam was the one behind the heinous attack, the ousted president pointed fingers at the then Iranian regime.

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__________________
Aalam-e-soz o saz main, wasl se barh ker hai firaaq
Hijr me lazt-e-talb, wasl main marg-e-arzoo...!!!

Fallujah Fighting Spreads To Mosul And Ramadi

As U-S and allied forces squeeze Fallujah, Iraqi
rebels appear to be trying to open a "second front."

Fierce clashes are reported in Baghdad, to the north in Mosul and in Ramadi, which is near Fallujah.

Residents says they saw a U-S Humvee burning as U-S troops were fighting militants in Ramadi. Explosions have rocked the center of the Sunni city and smoke is rising from the center.

Officials in the north have imposed a curfew on Mosul, where a U-S military official says two U-S military convoys have been attacked. The official says a foreign contractor died in one attack.

In Baghdad, U-S troops have been trading fire with masked fighters. And south of the city, U-S and rebel clashes killed six people.

A roadside bomb north of Baghdad Wednesday killed a U-S soldier and wounded another.
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Iraq's Allawi Feels the Heat as Relatives Kidnapped

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - As if the pressure on Iraq's prime minister were not already enough, three of his close relatives have now been abducted and threatened with death.

Islamic militants have kidnapped Iyad Allawi's 75-year-old cousin, his cousin's wife and their daughter-in-law and have threatened to behead them in 48 hours unless Allawi calls off the offensive on the rebel city of Falluja, west of Baghdad.

The previously unknown Ansar al-Jihad group is also demanding all Iraqi prisoners be freed, echoing ultimatums made by other militant groups that have killed hostages.

Rarely has a political leader been put under such direct pressure, on top of the already heavy demands of tackling a growing insurgency and holding together his unsettled interim government.

Allawi's office responded to the kidnappings by saying the government would not give in. "This is yet another criminal act by terrorists and will not thwart the determination of the government to combat terrorism," it said in a brief statement.

But the abductions, carried out one day after Allawi gave the go-ahead for a full-blooded U.S. offensive against Falluja, have thrown the prime minister's policy into stark relief.

More than 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines, backed by heavy artillery and supported by Iraqi troops, launched the assault on Falluja on Monday night, advancing on rebel positions from several directions.

U.S. commanders say they now control about half the city and are preparing to retake northern districts street by street from diehard rebels.

Allawi has developed a reputation as a tough man who brooks little opposition. He has repeatedly called on foreign governments not to give in to the demands of militants who kidnap their nationals, and almost all have held that line.

He is unlikely to change tack now, but with family members in militant hands he is in the same position as many ordinary Iraqis, hundreds of whom have had relatives seized and some of whom have paid ransoms.


FORMER EXILE


A secular Shi'ite who opposed Saddam Hussein from exile, Allawi was named prime minister on May 28, though he was not seen as the first choice for the job.

He has yet to convince many Iraqis his government is no mere tool of the Americans.

The 58-year-old politician has no significant following in Iraq, where until recently few people had heard of him because of his decades in exile, mostly in Britain and Jordan.

Some Iraqis distrust him as a returned exile with past links to U.S. and British intelligence. Others are wary of his past ties to Saddam's Baath Party and former army officers, though some see these as useful credentials.

Many initially appeared willing to give him a chance to show what he could do against Sunni insurgents, foreign militants and criminals who have defied U.S. military might.

But the past four months have seen surging violence aimed particularly at the fledgling Iraqi security forces Allawi has tried to build up to replace the 160,000 U.S.-led troops in Iraq.

Allawi has tried to convince the Sunni minority, privileged under Saddam, that it has a place in the new Iraq alongside majority Shi'ites eager for power and minority Kurds.

He wants former officers not directly tainted by the cruelties of Saddam's rule to join the new army and help fight the guerrillas, who denounce the new security forces as "apostate" collaborators with the Americans.

The government also appears open to allowing radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr into mainstream politics.

Allawi, backed by the United States and Britain, is determined to hold national assembly elections on time in January, a policy supported by majority Shi'ites.

But the Falluja offensive could fuel the grievances of Sunnis and may prompt them to boycott the polls, robbing them of legitimacy.


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__________________
Aalam-e-soz o saz main, wasl se barh ker hai firaaq
Hijr me lazt-e-talb, wasl main marg-e-arzoo...!!!

The Fire Is Spreading

The blasts of mortars exploding in the so-called "Green Zone" are thumping out my window as I type tonight. The blades of military helicopters chop the air as they circle above the area looking for, well, looking for something.

"I know what they are doing to us-they are putting is in a big jail. First they close the borders with Syria and now Jordan, so we are trapped in Iraq," says Salam. "Now they put a curfew on Baghdad. This is the first. The second is that the highway bridge connecting us to the west of Baghdad is bombed. Another bridge that leads to the south (Kerbala, Hilla, Najaf) was bombed. And now the other highway south to Amara, Nasiriya and Basra is blocked."

"So all they have left to close is the highway to Dialawhen that last one is closed, we are locked in to Baghdad," explains Salam, his face stoic but concerned, "We are in. This is our life here man."

Iraqi Secretary of Defense, Hassim al-Sha'alan, today announced to al-Arabia television that the resistance is organized and they have already prepared to fight in other places. So the fighting in Falluja will not end when the Americans take the city. The fighting will begin in other places like Baghdad, Baquba, Latifiya, Ramadi, Samarra, Khaldiya, Kirkuk and elsewhere.

Thus, the word on the street that the resistance was mostly out of Falluja prior to this battle is verified by the Iraqi Minister of Defense himself. The fire had begun to spread long before the current onslaught of Falluja.

Salam has a friend who just came from Baquba and said that the resistance came to the police station and told them to leave because they would be bombing the station. This policemen who left said he watched the resistance bomb the station. At least 25 policemen have been killed there, between two stations that were bombed.

In Kirkuk, the retaliatory strikes by the resistance for what is happening in Falluja have commenced as well. A suicide bomber detonated his car at a base for Iraqi National Guard, killing at least 1 national guard member and 2 civilians.

Of course the random gun battles and retaliation is ongoing in Baghdad. The so-called "Green Zone" continues to take mortars. This has been going on sporadically throughout the day, but is consistent nowthe whumping explosions are incessant, even with choppers circling about overhead.

Also today, two churches in Al-Dora were destroyed by car bombs which detonated 5 minutes apart. When the injured and dead were taken from the scenes to Yarmouk Hospital, the hospital was car bombed. At least 8 people died it the hospital car bombing.

"We are looking at this just as numbers," says Salam with a deep breath, "But this is 8 families. This is 8 families that are suffering now."

5 policemen were killed in Al-Dora as well-not by car bomb, but by fighting with the resistance.

The growing fire of resistance has spread into the political realm in Iraq as well. The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) has called upon people not to vote in the upcoming election.

Dr. Harith al-Dhari, the secretary-general of the AMS, openly supports the Iraqi resistance to the occupation and has from the beginning. "We have said we support the resistance since the occupation of this country began," he said today, "This is our right as Iraqis. Therefore, we don't need a fatwa on this issue as this matter is clear."

Also today, a major Sunni political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has withdrawn from the Iraqi Interim Government. "We are protesting the attack on Falluja and the injustice that is inflicted on the innocent people of the city," said Abd al-Hamid, "We cannot be part of this attack."

Abu Talat called and told me of the curfew now in Baghdad. We have to be off the streets by 9:30 pm or we will be shot on sight.

"You know Dahr, I used to stay out until 3am. Now this is our life," says Abu Talat. He is enraged. "This is some kind of freedom. Thank you, George Bush. This is our life."

Everyone is nervous on the streets in Baghdad tonight. Every car left unattended is suspected as a car bomb.

Another man I met with today, Haythem, expressed his feelings about the occupation, Falluja, and the martial law.

"Iraq is pregnant with an American fetus," he pauses for emphasis and says, "And we need birth control pills." He sits for a moment, and after making a toast with a soft drink adds, "Long life to Falluja."

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U.S. Humvee Hit By Sniper Crashes In Baghdad

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Nov 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. Humvee military vehicle crashed in southwestern Baghdad on Wednesday after a hidden sniper shot at the driver, a Reuters cameraman said.

After a single shot rang out, the Humvee veered out of control and rolled on its side. U.S. soldiers took the driver out of the vehicle and drove him away in another Humvee.

The driver was not moving when he was taken from the vehicle, but there was no word on his condition.

The shooting occurred at about 1 p.m. (1000 GMT) as an American convoy of trucks and contractor vehicles passed through the Dora district of the Iraqi capital.

A U.S. military spokesman said he would check the report.

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Roadside bomb kills U.S. soldier in Iraq


Source: Reuters


BAGHDAD, Nov 10 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another near the Iraqi town of Balad, north of Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.

It said the bomb struck a 1st Infantry Division combat patrol at about 4:20 a.m. (0120 GMT) near the town, some 80 km (50 miles) from the Iraqi capital.

The latest death took to at least 880 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the start of last year's invasion. Including non-combat deaths, the toll stands at at least 1,142.

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'Watching tragedy engulf my city'

US and Iraqi forces are locked in desperate street battles against insurgents civilain residents in the Iraqi city of Falluja. The BBC News website spoke by phone to Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic.

I am surrounded by thick black smoke and the smell of burning oil.

There was a big explosion a few minutes ago and now I can hear gunfire.

A US armoured vehicle has been parked on the street outside my house in the centre of the city.

From my window, I can see US soldiers moving around on foot near it.

They tried to go from house to house but they kept coming under fire.

Now they are firing back at the houses, at anything that moves. It is war on the streets.

The American troops look like they have given up trying to go into buildings for now and are just trying to control the main roads.

I am sitting here on my own, watching tragedy engulf my city.

Looks like Kabul

I was with some of the Falluja fighters earlier. They looked tired - but their spirits were high and they were singing.

No one has had much sleep in the past two days of heavy fighting and of course, it is still Ramadan, so no one eats during the day.

I cannot say how many people have been killed but after two days of bombing, this city looks like Kabul.

Large portions of it have been destroyed but it is so dangerous to leave the house that I have not been able to find out more about casualties.

Mosques silent

A medical dispensary in the city centre was bombed earlier.

I don't know what has happened to the doctors and patients who were there.

It was last place you could get medical attention because the big hospital on the outskirts of Falluja was captured by the Americans on Monday.

A lot of the mosques have also been bombed.

For the first time in Falluja, a city of 1,200 mosques, I did not hear a single call to prayer this morning.

I broke my Ramadan fast yesterday with the last of our food - two potatoes and two tomatoes.

The tomatoes were rotten because we have no electricity to run the fridge.

My neighbours - a woman and her children - came to see me yesterday. They asked me to tell the world what is happening here.

I look at the devastation around me and ask - why?

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Two UK soldiers injured in Iraq

Two British soldiers have been seriously injured in a suicide attack in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence said. The troops were part of the Black Watch battle group stationed at Camp Dogwood 20 miles (32km) from Baghdad, having been re-deployed from Basra. The MoD said they were injured in the attack at 0922 local time and had been airlifted to a US field hospital. The injuries came after three soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a checkpoint near Falluja on Thursday.

Battle group

The two soliders suffered serious injuries to their lower legs, BBC correspondent Ben Brown said from Camp Dogwood. The pair are due to be flown to a military hospital in Germany within 24 hours. The battle group includes an armoured reconnaissance from B Squadron, Queen's Dragoon Guards, elements of 40 Commando Royal Marines, and supporting specialists from the Royal Engineers, Royal Logistic Corps, Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, and Royal Military Police. The battle group had begun a major operation ahead of an expected raid on Falluja by US Marines.

They blocked off a key bridge on the eastern bank of the River Euphrates in the regiment's biggest mission since it was redeployed to central Iraq on 27 October. The operation has intensified speculation that American and Iraqi troops will launch an imminent raid on Falluja. Ben Brown, at the troops' base, said the plan is to stop fighters and weapons being moved by Sunni insurgents.

The operation comes days after three soldiers from the regiment were killed. Sgt Stuart Gray, 31, Pte Paul Lowe, 19 and Pte Scott McArdle, 22, all from Fife, died in a suicide bomb attack at a checkpoint near Falluja on Thursday

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No 10 bans families of Iraq troops

By Paul Waugh Deputy Political Editor, Evening Standard
10 November 2004


Downing Street was plunged into a row with Scotland Yard today after soldiers' relatives were banned from laying a wreath outside No10.


Families of those killed and serving in Iraq reacted with fury when police told them they could not make the gesture or hold a minute's silence on the steps of the Prime Minister's residence.

A No 10 spokeswoman blamed police for the ban, but was forced to backtrack once Scotland Yard pointed out that its officers were following orders.

Following the statement by the Metropolitan Police, No10 said it would try to find a way for a smaller wreath to be delivered inside Downing Street.

Eleven people, including relatives of Black Watch soldiers who have died during the conflict, arrived to call on Tony Blair to withdraw-British troops in an event organised by the Stop The War Coalition (STWC). Among the relatives was Maxine Gentle, 14, whose brother Gordon, a Royal Highland Fusilier, was killed by a roadside bomb near Basra in June.

Their mother Rose was hoping to meet Mr Blair in person to demand troops be pulled out.

An STWC spokesman said No10 should "show some dignity" and allow the families' gesture. "If what Downing Street wants is an image of a 14-year-old girl locked outside, holding a wreath in honour of her dead brother, so be it." Other people joining the group today included Reg Keys, whose Military Policeman son, Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, 20, was murdered by a mob in Iraq last year.

James Buchanan, from Arbroath, whose son Gary is serving in the Black Watch, was also in the group. The Black Watch has lost four soldiers since its controversial deployment near Baghdad.

Mr Blair's official spokesman later said the relatives could bring in a wreath if it was small enough to fit through the X-ray security machines in the street.

The families include members of a new organisation, Military Families Against the War, modelled on a similar group in the US. The two organisations hope to repeat the success of campaigns to withdraw troops from Vietnam in the Seventies.

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U.S. MARINES USES ISRAELI TACTICS IN FALUJA

BAGHDAD [MENL] -- The U.S. military has employed Israeli urban warfare tactics during the current invasion of the Iraqi city of Faluja.

U.S. officials said the Army and Marine Corps have employed tactics developed during the Israeli military invasion of West Bank cities in 2002. They said the Israeli methods helped save soldiers and accelerate the advance through Faluja.

"We have learned a lot regarding urban warfare tactics in the Middle East from our allies," an official said. "Yes, this includes Israel."

Officials acknowledged that hundreds of officers have trained in Israel over the last two years in urban warfare and counter-insurgency. In September, scores of U.S. officers trained at the Adam urban warfare school northeast of Tel Aviv, a facility that contains a mock Arab village.

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__________________
Aalam-e-soz o saz main, wasl se barh ker hai firaaq
Hijr me lazt-e-talb, wasl main marg-e-arzoo...!!!

Fallujans Tell Bush And Blair Oligarchies To P-I-S-S OFF

George Bush and Tony Blair have apparently concluded that they can crush the Iraqi people's will to resist occupation and legitimise a puppet regime next January by occupying Falluja. Maybe they imagine they can emulate the British forces that terrorised Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1920s by obliterating recalcitrant villages. The US generals will no doubt deliver Falluja to Bush and Blair after bombarding its neighbourhoods with artillery and rockets. But they are doomed to deliver neither the Fallujans nor the people of Iraq. Perhaps they are unaware that Fallujans defied Saddam's rule during his last years in power. Falluja - known as the city of a thousand mosques - attracted Saddam's wrath in 1998 when its imams refused to hail the tyrant in their Friday sermons. Many were imprisoned, and the city punished as a result.

Falluja's defiance of a new empire
It is Bush and Blair, not the Iraqi resistance, who fear free elections
Sami Ramadani

But the generals certainly do know how resistance began in Falluja. On April 28 2003 US soldiers opened fire on parents and children demonstrating against the continued military occupation of their primary school - killing 18 of them in cold blood and injuring about 60 others. Until the killing of those demonstrators, not a single bullet had been fired at US soldiers in Falluja or any of the cities north of Baghdad. But, remorselessly, little-known Falluja became a world-renowned centre of defiance, where a poor and poorly armed people has courageously faced the military wing of the new empire.

The way Falluja's 300,000 people reacted to the April 28 massacre has made them a prime target for savage bombardment and conquest. Najaf was bombed into a ceasefire in August. Samarra was conquered in September. Sadr City in Baghdad was bombarded and negotiated into temporary silence in October. Now they want to crush the symbol of Falluja, to teach the rest of Iraq a bloody lesson. Another pyrrhic victory is likely to be added to an already long list.

Blair once again misled parliament this week by branding the resistance in Falluja as Zarqawi-style terrorists out to destroy the prospects for democracy. It was he and Bush who last year rejected the calls for early free and fair elections from those who rejected the occupation, including Ayatollah Sistani, Moqtada al-Sadr, the resistance and the widely supported Iraqi National Foundation Congress. Bush and Blair are terrified of the Iraqi people voting for anti-occupation leaders. They will accept nothing short of the legitimisation, through sham elections supervised by the occupation authorities, of an Allawi-style puppet regime.

More than 100,000 Iraqis are estimated to have been been killed since the US-led invasion; the country's infrastructure has all but been destroyed; people are exposed to the danger of US and British depleted-uranium shells; hospitals have been reduced to impotence in the face of mounting injuries and disease; the centre of Najaf and entire neighbourhoods of several cities have been razed. How much more should the Iraqi people be subjected to for Bush and Blair to have their "democratically" chosen puppets installed in Baghdad?

These are war crimes of Saddamist proportions, and there is evidently more to come. Bush's latest pronouncements and Blair's declaration of a "second war" have made clear that the occupation governments are ready to kill (as "collateral damage", no doubt) even more Iraqis to enforce a pro-US order. Without a shred of evidence, Bush, Blair and Ayad Allawi's quisling regime shamelessly declare that they are only pursuing the Jordanian kidnapper Zarqawi and other "foreign terrorists". The people of Falluja, their leaders, negotiators and resistance fighters have always denounced Zarqawi and argued that such gangs have been encouraged to undermine the resistance.

The occupation forces have now reverted to their initial ploy of attacking cities north of Baghdad, while reaching ceasefires with some Baghdad districts and southern cities. Presumably, they see this as an effective divide-and-rule tactic, but it is likely to prove as futile as the rest of their plans for post-invasion Iraq. It is, in reality, merely a battle postponed. Iraq's history, reaffirmed by events since the US-led occupation, shows that its people's unity is stronger than differences based on religion, sect, ethnicity or national identity. That was demonstrated on Sunday when a senior Kurdish officer with the token US-commanded Iraqi force besieging Falluja deserted within half an hour of being shown the plans to occupy the city.

The US and British governments could do worse than digest the old Chinese proverb: "They lift a stone to drop it on their own feet." For they might have occupied Iraq and succeeded in lifting some of its heavy stones, but the stones will inevitably come crashing down on their feet.


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Marine's found slaughterhouses in Fallujah!

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. forces cornered insurgents Wednesday in a small section of Fallujah after a stunningly swift advance that seized control of 70 percent of the militant stronghold. An Iraqi general said troops found "hostage slaughterhouses" where foreign captives had been killed.

The abandoned houses had hostages' documents, CDs showing captives being killed, and black clothing worn by militants in videos, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan said.

But it appeared troops did not find any of the at least nine foreigners still in kidnappers' hands _ including two Americans. "We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people," Mohan said. But he said he did not know which hostages' documents were uncovered.

The speed of the U.S. drive in Fallujah may indicate that most Sunni fighters and their leaders abandoned the city before the offensive and moved elsewhere to carry on the fight, officers said. The most notorious kidnapper, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is believed to have fled the city.

Mohan, the head of the 2,000 Iraqi troops involved in Fallujah, said insurgents were still trying to escape encirclement. People were seen trying to swim across the Euphrates River, Mohan said at a press conference alongside Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Some remaining fighters have asked to surrender, government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb told reporters.

Mohan vowed to finish uprooting Sunni gunmen, pointing to guerrilla slayings of Iraqi security forces in the past. "For this, the Iraqi armed forces don't want revenge, but they want to get rid of insurgents, the evil, the murderers," he said.

Meanhwhile, Armed men kidnapped three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi _ his cousin, the cousin's wife and their daughter-in-law _ from their Baghdad home Tuesday night, al-Naqeeb said. A militant group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad claimed in a Web posting to be holding them threatened to behead them in 48 hours unless the Fallujah siege is lifted. The claim's authenticity could not be verifies.

The abduction appeared to be part of a campaign of violence by insurgents this week aimed at opening a "second front" to divert U.S. and Iraqi forces from the Fallujah offensive.

Insurgent violence sharpened across central and northern Iraq on Wednesday, with at least 18 people killed in fighting Wednesday, including a U.S. soldier and a foreign contractor. Authorities clamped an immediate curfew on the northern city of Mosul as U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen there. Fierce fighting also took place in Baghdad, to the south and in Ramadi, a Sunni stronghold where explosions shook the city as U.S. troops and gunmen battled near the main government building.

Still, U.S. and Iraqi troops were pushing ahead in Fallujah.

Sattler told reporters that the insurgents had been reduced to "small pockets, blind, moving throughout the city. And we will continue to hunt them down and destroy them." Maj. Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said U.S. forces now control 70 percent of the city.

At least 71 militants have been killed as of the beginning of the third day of intense urban combat, the military said. As of Tuesday night, 10 U.S. troops and two members of the Iraqi security forces had been killed. Marine reports Wednesday said 25 American troops and 16 Iraqi soldiers were wounded.

U.S. and Iraqi forces seized Fallujah's city hall compound before dawn after a gunbattle with insurgents who hit a U.S. tanks with anti-armor rockets. Iraqi soldiers swept into a police station in the compound and raised a flag above it.

Gunmen fired on troops from a mosque minaret, sparking a battle there, BBC's embedded correspondent Paul Wood reported. Marines said the insurgents waved a white flag at one stage but then opened fire, prompting the Marines to call in airstrikes, Wood said.

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Al Qaeda Says 7 Suicide Bombers Struck Iraqi Prison

Apr 3, 2005 — DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq said on Sunday seven suicide bombers spearheaded its brazen overnight raid on Abu Ghraib prison that wounded 44 U.S. soldiers, according to an Internet statement.

In a statement on Saturday's raid on the notorious facility outside Baghdad, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group said its fighters killed "dozens of Americans," destroyed more than 15 vehicles and shot down an Apache helicopter.

It said 57 fighters attacked watchtowers from four sides and "silenced them" as seven suicide bombers detonated vehicles laden with explosives around the facility.


"Three martyrs were … (killed) while infiltrating the infidels' fortresses, and seven other martyrdom seekers went to heaven after they blew up the enemy…," said the statement posted on a Web site used by Islamists.

The U.S. military said dozens of insurgents carried out the attack, detonating two car bombs and firing rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. forces before the assault was repelled.

"Your brothers in the al Qaeda Organization (for Holy War) in Iraq launched a well-planned attack on Abu Ghraib prison, where Muslim women and men are held," the group said in another statement.

It said the battle, which also involved missile strikes, lasted most of the night.

"Columns of smoke were seen rising from the crusaders' bases," the statement said. "This battle is part of a series of raids … which began yesterday across the land of Mesopotamia."

The group said it would provide a film of the attack soon.

Besides the 44 U.S. troops wounded, 12 detainees were hurt, one seriously. The U.S. military said at least one insurgent was killed.

It was believed to be the largest and most determined attack on Abu Ghraib, a prison where more than 3,000 suspected insurgents are held in U.S. detention and which was at the center of a prisoner abuse scandal last year.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=637702

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US relied on 'drunken liar' to justify war

The Sunday Observer


'Crazy' Iraqi spy was full of misinformation, says report

Edward Helmore in New York
Sunday April 3, 2005

An alcoholic cousin of an aide to Ahmed Chalabi has emerged as the key source in the US rationale for going to war in Iraq.

According to a US presidential commission looking into pre-war intelligence failures, the basis for pivotal intelligence on Iraq's alleged biological weapons programmes and fleet of mobile labs was a spy described as 'crazy' by his intelligence handlers and a 'congenital liar' by his friends.

The defector, given the code-name Curveball by the CIA, has emerged as the central figure in the corruption of US intelligence estimates on Iraq. Despite considerable doubts over Curveball's credibility, his claims were included in the administration's case for war without caveat.

According to the report, the failure of US spy agencies to scrutinise his claims are the 'primary reason' that they 'fundamentally misjudged the status of Iraq's [biological weapons] programs'. The catalogue of failures and the gullibility of US intelligence make for darkly comic reading, even by the standards of failure detailed in previous investigations. Of all the disproven pre-war weapons claims, from aluminium centrifuge tubes to yellow cake uranium from Niger, none points to greater levels of incompetence than those found within the misadventures of Curveball.

The Americans never had direct access to Curveball - he was controlled by the German intelligence services who passed his reports on to the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's spy agency.

Between January 2000 and September 2001, Curveball offered 100 reports, among them the claims of mobile biological weapons labs that were central in the US evidence of an illicit weapons programme, but subsequently turned out to be trucks equipped with machinery to make helium for weather balloons.

The commission concluded that Curveball's information was worse than none at all. 'Worse than having no human sources,' it said, 'is being seduced by a human source who is telling lies.'

Although the defector has never been formally identified, it appears he was an Iraqi chemical engineer who defected after UN inspectors left the country in 1998.

In the aftermath of the US-led invasion, Iraqis whom Curveball claimed were co-workers in Saddam's alleged biological weapons programme did not know who he was. He claimed he'd witnessed a deadly biological weapons accident when he was not even in Iraq when it was meant to have happened. After September 2001, his claims were given greater credibility despite the fact that he was not in Iraq at the time he claimed to have taken part in illicit weapons work. His information was central to an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iraq 'has' biological weapons, and was widely used by President Bush and Dick Cheney to make their case for war.

It now appears there were problems with Curveball from the start, but the intelligence community was willing to believe him 'because the tales he told were consistent with what they already believed.'

In May 2000 doubts about his credibility surfaced when he was examined for signs that he had been exposed to biological agents. While the results were inconclusive, a US official was surprised to find Curveball had a hangover and said he 'might be an alcoholic.' By early 2001, the Germans were having doubts of their own, telling the CIA their spy was 'out of control'.

But warnings were dismissed. Intelligence analysts who voiced concern were 'forced to leave' the unit mainly responsible for analysing his claims, the commission found. At every turn analysts were blocked by spy chiefs and their warning never passed on to policy-makers.

The commission's report is unlikely to renew confidence in America's intelligence network as it attempts to uncover evidence of WMDs in Iran and elsewhere. The report concludes that US intelligence agencies remain poorly coordinated, have resisted reform and produce 'irrelevant' work.

· Dozens of insurgents attacked Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad yesterday, detonating two suicide car bombs and firing rocket-propelled grenades at US forces before the assault was repelled. At least 20 US soldiers and 12 detainees were wounded in the fighting, which lasted around an hour.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/inter...451138,00.html

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US soldier killed in bomb attack north of Baghdad

www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-04 03:58:15

BAGHDAD, April 3 (Xinhuanet) -- A US soldier was killed in a bomb attack north of Baghdad on Sunday, the US military said in a statement.

The improvised explosive device, a military term for home-made bomb, was detonated at about 6:45 pm (1445 GMT) near Bayji, 200 km north of Baghdad, the statement said.

US forces secured the site and began to investigate the incident, the statement added without giving other details.Over 1520 US soldiers have died in Iraq since the US-led invasion started two years ago. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_2782478.htm

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Britain to pull out 5,500 troops from Iraq: Report

Press Trust of India

London, April 3, 2005|14:47 IST


Britain plans to reduce the size of its military force in Iraq from 9,000 to 3,500 soldiers within a year and increase its troops in Afghanistan in a renewed bid to hunt down Osama bin Laden and other senior Al-Qaeda figures reportedly hiding close to the country's border with Pakistan, a leading London newspaper said on Sunday.

The withdrawals from Iraq could begin by April next year because coalition forces would have trained enough members of the Iraqi defence and police forces to take control of security throughout Iraq, according to the report in The Sunday Telegraph.

Lt Gen James Conway of the US marines recently said that the withdrawal of American troops within the same time frame as the British was possible because Iraqis were "starting to take control of their own situation".

The report said terrorist attacks against US soldiers have declined since the Iraqi national elections in January.

Lt Gen Conway said American and British troops had trained and equipped 147,000 Iraqis, who will eventually form part of a 240,000-strong security force.

A third of all British and US troops in Iraq, about 40,000 are committed to training and advising the Iraqi military through embedded teams of soldiers.

British troops are based in five locations in southern Iraq, including Camp Abu Naji in Al Amarah, which is home to a battle group of about 1,000 armoured infantry troops. The remainder of the 9,000 troops are split between the three camps in Basra and the logistics base at Shaibah, 40 kms south of the city.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/1...3,00050003.htm

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US ignored work of UN arms inspectors before Iraq war, says report

www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-04 02:46:29


WASHINGTON, April 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States ignored the work of UN inspectors, who had extraordinary access during their three months in Iraq between November 2002 and March 2003, before the Iraq war, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Months before US troops attacked Iraq in March 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) challenged every piece of evidence the Bush administration offered to support claims of anuclear program in the country, the report said, quoting an investigation report commissioned by President George W. Bush and released Thursday.


By the time Bush ordered US troops to disarm Saddam Hussein of the deadly weapons he was allegedly trying to build, every piece of fresh evidence had been tested -- and disproved -- by UN inspectors.

In January 2003, IAEA inspectors discovered that documents showing Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger were forged, but the CIA chose to stick to the claim for another six months, the Post report said.

The IAEA assessment, which turned out to be accurate, was firstshared with US intelligence in July 2001, according to the authorsof the presidential commission report.

The UN Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission, headed by Hans Blix to investigate biological, chemical and missile programs in Iraq, also determined before the war that CIA claims about a fleet of pilotless Iraqi planes were incorrect. Theunmanned aerial vehicles did not have the capability to deliver chemical or biological weapons and were probably designed for reconnaissance missions, the Post reported said.

The Bush administration, which has maintained a hostile relationship with the IAEA, has prevented the agency from returning to Iraq since the invasion in March 2003. Enditem


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_2782459.htm

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Iraq Names Sunni as Assembly Speaker

Audio for this story will be available at approx. 7:30 p.m. ET


All Things Considered, April 3, 2005 · Lawmakers in Baghdad elect three parliamentary leaders by secret ballot. Industry Minister Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni, won the parliament's speaker post. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4573627

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Insurgents attack Abu Ghraib prison
44 US soldiers injured, 6 Iraqis killed in violence
AP, AFP, Baghdad

Insurgents attacked the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, injuring 44 US forces and 12 prisoners, the US military said yesterday, while six people were killed elsewhere in Iraq following a period of declining attacks that had raised hopes the insurgency might be weakening.
Iraq's new parliament finally elected a speaker yesterday ending fierce sectarian wrangling two months after historic elections.


MPs elected Sunni Arab MP Hajem al-Hassani as speaker and Shia Hussein al-Sharastani and Kurd Aref Tayfur as his two deputies after the assembly's second session ended in shambles last Tuesday when the 16 Sunni Arab MPs refused to back the Shias' preferred candidate for speaker.

The vote came even as parliament's Shia, Kurdish and Sunni blocs were still far from agreeing on a new governing coalition amid intense jockeying over the cabinet lineup.

At least 40 militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and set off two car bombs at the infamous prison as darkness fell Saturday night, 1st Lt. Adam Rondeau said. Soldiers and Marines stationed at the detention facility responded, and the resulting clash and gunfight lasted about 40 minutes. No one escaped.

"This was obviously a very well-organised attack and a very big attack," Rondeau said.

On Sunday, US military officials raised the casualty toll from 20 to 44 US service members, and said some of the injuries were serious.

Officials have said that overall attacks have been declining in Iraq, but they also have noted that insurgents seem to be focusing their efforts on bigger, better organised operations.

It wasn't immediately known if any of the insurgents carrying out the attack were arrested or suffered casualties. Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the area.

Abu Ghraib was at the centre of a prisoner abuse scandal that broke out in 2004 when pictures showing soldiers piling naked inmates in a pyramid and humiliating them sexually became public. The resulting scandal tarnished the military's image worldwide and sparked investigations of detainee abuses.

The United States is holding about 10,500 prisoners in Iraq.

Negotiators also said they hoped to name the country's new interim president expected to be Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents during Sunday's session.

Alliance members have agreed to nominate former nuclear scientist Hussain al-Shahristani as one of two deputy speakers and interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi as one of the vice presidents. Kurdish judge Dara Nor al-Din is expected to be nominated for the second deputy to the parliament speaker post.

Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, politicians Adnan Pachachi and Sharif Ali Bin Al-Hussein all Sunni Arabs were vying for the second vice president's post, officials say.

Once in his post, Talabani and the vice presidents will name the new interim prime minister, likely Shia politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari. After that, the legislative body has until mid-August to write a new constitution that will pave the way for new elections and a permanent government.

But US and Iraqi officials acknowledge they have a long way to go. Early Saturday, gunmen opened fire from a car in Baghdad, killing local official Hassib Zamil outside of the Education Ministry offices in the Sadr City neighbourhood.

In the central city of Khan Bani Saad, a car bomb killed five people, including four police officers on patrol. Two police officers and three civilians also were wounded, provincial police Col. Mudafar al-Jubori said.

A car bomb also injured six Iraqis and set a house on fire in the northern city of Mosul, the US military said. The attack happened Saturday as coalition soldiers, acting on a citizens' tip, were arriving to investigate, the US military said.

It also reported that a US Marine was killed by enemy fire while conducting security operations in Ramadi on Friday.

In a separate statement, the US military praised an edict issued by Sunni clerics that called for Iraqis to join police and army forces, saying it was a sign that people were fed up with the insurgency. But the statement added that enlistees "must be prepared to serve all the people."

In another development Saturday, Interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh issued a statement condemning the attack a day earlier against a ninth-century minaret in the central city of Samarra, calling it an "affront to the nation's history and humanity."

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Resistance ambushes US force in al-Latifiyah.


In a dispatch posted at 11:15am Mecca time Saturday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that Iraqi Resistance forces ambushed a US force in the ad-Dulaym area of al-Latifiyah, south of Baghdad. Witnesses told Mafkarat al-Islam that the Resistance fighters, concealed in date palm groves on a rural road in al-Latifiyah, attacked the US column with rockets and medium weapons, destroying four Humvees and disabling a fifth. More than 20 US Marines were killed and others wounded, the witnesses told Mafkarat al-Islam, adding that about seven Resistance fighters were martyred in the fighting as well.

A local resident of ad-Dulaym told Mafkarat al-Islam that the Resistance would have wiped out the American detachment entirely but for the arrival of US helicopters that forced the Resistance fighters to withdraw from the area. Afterwards, US forces surrounded the area as the helicopters landed.

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Bunkers reveal well-equipped, sophisticated insurgencyBy: Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder on: 05.06.2005 [060 ] (512 reads)Article image

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Marines in Iraq discovered a series of underground bunkers used by insurgents in western Iraq that show a sophisticated organization with a vast supply of weapons and enough confidence to operate near a major Marine base.

The well-equipped, air-conditioned bunkers, found Thursday, were just 16 miles from the city of Fallujah where hundreds of Marines are stationed. Measuring 558 feet by 902 feet, the underground system of rooms featured four fully furnished living spaces, showers and a kitchen with fresh food - suggesting insurgents had been present recently, according to the U.S. military.

The weapons and high-tech equipment found inside the bunker was impressive: mortars, rockets, machine guns, night-vision goggles, compasses, ski masks and cell phones. Marines also found at least 59 surface-to-air missiles, some 29,000 AK-47 rounds, more than 350 pounds of plastic explosives and an unspecified amount of TNT in a five-mile area around the bunkers.

"There isn't any historical data here detailing whether this is the most elaborate facility ever found in Iraq or even (the) province," Marine spokesperson 1st Lt. Kate S. VandenBossche said via e-mail from a base in nearby Ramadi. "I can tell you that it is the largest underground system discovered in at least the last year."

After retaking Fallujah from insurgents last November, Marine officials called the town the safest place in Iraq. Last month Marines staged two large-scale offensives in the region aimed at rooting out insurgents from their safe haven in Anbar province, thought to be home to the core Sunni Muslim-led insurgency.

VandenBossche said the find was another indication of American success in the area.

"A find like this says more about the average Iraqi citizen than the insurgents," she said. "It's their willingness to give us information about insurgent activity in their cities that lead us to these finds."

A tip line in nearby Ramadi went from getting 30 to 40 tips in March and April to 120 last month, VandenBossche said.

But an Islamic mufti, or spiritual leader, living near Fallujah offered a different take: He said the bunkers were proof that the insurgency is unbowed.

"This shows the failure of the Marines. It was close to their base and they could not see it," said the mufti, who formerly sat on the council that directed insurgents in Fallujah. He spoke by phone Saturday evening on the condition of anonymity. "The Americans think they know everything. But when they came to Iraq they thought the people would receive them with flowers. Instead of flowers they found these bunkers."

Haitham al-Dulaimi, who works at a garage in Ramadi, had a similar reaction.

"Are you sure they found it near Fallujah?" he asked, laughing. "It shows you how much the Iraqi resistance has insulted the Americans."

It was not clear who built the bunkers. The entrance to the underground system was discovered by a patrol of Marines and Iraqi army soldiers who were searching a house in the desert when they found a passageway beneath an electric freezer. A rock quarry is adjacent to the site, and the space could be an abandoned mine facility. Former dictator Saddam Hussein also kept underground bunkers throughout the country.

"I honestly don't know what the bunker was used for before insurgents began using it," said VandenBossche, the Marine spokesperson.

The find comes amidst mounting concern in Iraq that the insurgency has reorganized after a lull in violence following national elections in January.

The number of U.S. troops killed by hostile fire in May - 67 - was the highest since November, when Marines and soldiers stormed Fallujah.

"At times there is not a good reasonable explanation as to why there are more casualties one month versus another," said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a top military spokesman in Baghdad. "The enemy gets a vote and unfortunately at times, they get lucky."

There were at least 143 car bombs across Iraq last month, detonated both by suicide bombers and remote devices. More than 700 Iraqis, mostly civilians, have been killed since the nation's interim government took office April 28.

"The U.S. has so far been unable to find an effective way to fight and defeat the various insurgencies - I'd hesitate to characterize them in the singular - that have been raging," said Joost R. Hiltermann, the Amman-based Middle East project director of the International Crisis Group, a think tank. To shift the tide, he said, there must be more competent Iraqi security forces, a powerful indigenous government and better reconstruction efforts.

"Short of successes on all three fronts, I think we will see a continuation of the insurgencies and, therefore, of casualties among the military," Hiltermann said.

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22 Iraqi soldiers kidnapped

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Twenty-two Iraqi soldiers were kidnapped near the Syrian border, an Iraqi military source said Wednesday as four US soldiers were killed in less than 24 hours in attacks north of the capital.

With no let-up in the targeting of the country's fledgling security forces, senior Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Aziz Hakim demanded that the armed wing of his party play a greater role in hunting down insurgents, who have also singled out the country's majority Shiite community for attacks.

The soldiers, all Shiites from the south, were nabbed by armed men in Rawa, about 250 kilometres west of Baghdad, after they had left their base, said the military source, adding that nothing had been heard from them since.

The defence and interior ministries could not confirm the report.

Rawa is in the predominantly Sunni Arab Anbar province that has seen several incidents of kidnapping and mass killing of Iraqi soldiers in the past.

In early March, the bullet-riddled bodies of at least 30 members of the security forces were found on the banks of the Euphrates near Qaim, another border town in the restive province.

Both US and Iraqi officials have accused Syria of not doing enough to stem the flow of fighters through its border with Iraq.

And at another flash point on the Iraq-Syrian frontier, a joint Iraqi-US force pressed on with an offensive against insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar, west of the main city of Mosul.

Four bombers were killed when their explosives-laden vehicle detonated prematurely in Tal Afar, said Captain Ahmed Amjad of the Iraqi police.

Troops have found and destroyed nine weapons caches and detained 73 suspects since the start of the operation in Tal Afar on May 26, the US military said, adding that it was part of about 30 solo Iraqi or joint anti-insurgency operations nationwide.

With the major offensive in Baghdad dubbed Operation Lightning in its third week, insurgents appear to have shifted their focus north of the capital in a familiar pattern of moving attacks from one area of the country to another whenever they come under pressure.

At least 49 Iraqis and four US soldiers have been killed since Tuesday in attacks north of the capital.

A US soldier was killed Wednesday when his patrol hit a roadside bomb near Ad-Dawr, a US military statement said.

In nearby Tikrit, ousted leader Saddam Hussein's hometown, two US soldiers were killed late Tuesday in an "indirect fire attack" on their base, a military statement said.

Leaflets signed by the shadowy Islamic Army were plastered on shop fronts and walls in Tikrit claiming responsibility.

"The knights of the Ali Ben Abi Taleb Brigade fired a barrage of mortars and rockets last night at the citadel of infidels in the centre of Tikrit," said the leaflet. Another US soldier based in Balad, also north of Baghdad, was killed in a roadside bomb Tuesday.

Other violence Wednesday included the killing of two guards of Kurdish Deputy Fraidun Abdulqader as they drove in the capital's tense southern district of Dura.

In another sign of the majority Shiites' determination to cement their position in power after years of oppression under Saddam's Sunni dominated rule, Abdul Aziz Hakim called for greater influence over security matters for those who fought the previous regime. In recognition of the "sacrifices and heroic positions of our brothers and brave sons from the Badr Organisation... we must give them priority in bearing administrative and government responsibilities especially in the security field," Hakim told a conference honouring Badr in Baghdad. He leads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a key member of the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. Its Badr Organisation replaced the Badr Brigade which was formed by former SCIRI boss and Hakim's brother Mohammad Baqer Hakim in the 1980s to fight Saddam with backing and funding from Iran. After Saddam's fall many Sunni Arabs accused Badr and other returning Shiite dissidents of leading a vendetta against them. The tension boiled over in mid-May with the murder of 14 Sunnis. At the time, Hareth Dhari, the head of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, Iraq's main Sunni religious authority, openly fingered Badr as the culprit.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news1.htm


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