Up to 15,000 troops storm Fallujah, bombs rock Baghdad

3.20pm UPDATE

FALLUJA, Iraq - Thousands of US and Iraqi troops backed by heavy air support and armour have stormed into the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah in the second major offensive in seven months to try to recapture the insurgent stronghold.

After a day of intense air strikes, artillery barrages and tank fire, US Marines launched the full-scale assault two hours after sundown, when Iraq's Muslims mark the breaking of their daily fast in the holy month of Ramadan.

But insurgents struck back elsewhere, killing at least 11 people in the biggest wave of bombings in the capital in weeks, including attacks on two churches and a hospital.

Ahead of the Fallujah offensive, F-16 fighters screamed across cloudy skies, dropping bombs that sent up clouds of black smoke. When air attacks eased, artillery opened up, Cobra helicopters fired rockets and gunfire crackled.

On one edge of the city, between thunderous explosions, a cleric with a booming voice at a distant mosque rallied rebels for what could be the biggest battle since last year's invasion.

"God is greatest, oh martyrs," he said, telling fighters that waging holy war was an honour. "Rise up mujahideen."

Doctors said at least 15 civilians had been killed. There was no word on early US casualties.

Iraq's interim government and its US backers regard Fallujah and the neighbouring city of Ramadi as the heart of the insurgency gripping the country and see retaking the cities as crucial to restoring peace to allow elections due in January.

"We are determined to clean Fallujah from the terrorists," interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in the capital.

'TO HELL THEY WILL GO'

He visited Iraqi troops at the main US base near Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, a few hours before the assault and said they must free the people "taken hostage" by rebels.

"Your job is to arrest the killers, but if you kill them then let it be," he said, according to a pool report.

"May they go to hell," shouted the soldiers. "To hell they will go," Allawi replied.

About 10,000 to 15,000 US and Iraqi troops -- though overwhelmingly American -- are taking part in the offensive.

Allawi declared a 60-day emergency rule from Sunday to help crush the insurgency and pave the way for elections. On Monday, he used those powers to impose a curfew on Fallujah and Ramadi and effectively seal the borders with Jordan and Syria.

The US says 1,000 to 6,000 militants, some followers of Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and others Saddam Hussein loyalists, are holed up in the city.

Zarqawi's group has claimed some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq in recent months and the beheadings of foreign hostages aimed at driving out US forces and other foreigners.

With the US offensive shaping up, al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called on Muslims to take up arms against America.

"Oh people, the war has begun and the call for jihad (holy war) has been made," he said in an internet statement.

Another group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, on its website ordered "all its forces to escalate operations to the highest level" and urged "mujahideen everywhere to repel the infidel".

The assault has united Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis, with both groups urging Iraqi forces to refuse to fight.

"We condemn this attack that will escalate the security situation inside Iraq," Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, a spokesman for fiery anti US Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told Reuters.

April's attempt to capture Fallujah failed in part because of the refusal of some Iraqi units to fight and in part because of high civilian casualties.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington he did not foresee high civilian casualties, adding no-one knew how many residents remained in Fallujah.

After weeks of pounding by US air strikes that residents say have killed civilians and razed homes, most of the city's 300,000 people have fled.

Insurgents stepped up attacks around the country in the countdown to the long-expected Fallujah assault, killing dozens of people in recent days.

In Baghdad on Monday, car bombs at two churches killed at least three people and wounded 40. Later, a suicide car bomber killed five policemen outside the hospital treating the wounded.

Gunmen killed a US soldier in eastern Baghdad in a separate attack and a British soldier died when a roadside bomb hit his Warrior armoured vehicle southwest of the capital.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq