US claims city clear of rebels

US Lieutenant-General John Sattler declared yesterday his forces had "broken the back of the insurgency" in Fallujah, but US troops still faced dangers in the city and guerrillas attacked elsewhere in Iraq.

US and Iraqi troops killed about 1200 militants and took more than 1000 prisoners in clearing Fallujah of rebels, Sattler said, but a US Marine and an Iraqi soldier were killed before a tank "silenced" fighters holed up in the shattered city.

Iraq's US-backed interim Government also declared the operation a success and held out the prospect of residents being able to return home within days, offering US$100 ($143) cash to each family and compensation for damage to homes and businesses.

But though 10 days of fighting had deprived guerrilla groups of a safe haven, a spokesman for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi conceded that many rebels had dispersed, posing threats elsewhere that US and Iraqi authorities would have to counter.

US Marine officers in Fallujah, in a report leaked to the New York Times, warned of the "outstanding resilience" of an insurgency based around both former loyalists of Saddam Hussein and Islamists such as Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Guerrillas would continue to disrupt efforts to set up reliable Iraqi security forces and to hold an election in late January, the Marine intelligence report was quoted as saying.

That would put pressure on US forces, who have already had to return troops from Fallujah to other northern and western areas, where some in the once-dominant Sunni Muslim minority fear elections will hand power to Iraq's Shi'ite majority. Washington says Zarqawi probably escaped from Fallujah.

In the north, a bodyguard was killed and four wounded in a mortar attack on the governor's compound in Mosul, where Sunni insurgents caused mayhem during the US assault on Fallujah.

A US base in Mosul was hit by mortars and six Iraqis died in bombings in the northern oil towns of Baiji and Kirkuk. A roadside bomb in Baghdad killed an Iraqi.

Iraqi police and national guards detained 104 suspected militants in raids around Haifa Street, a rebellious Sunni Muslim stronghold in Baghdad. Nine were suspected of having escaped from Fallujah.

In Ramadi, another restive Sunni stronghold west of Fallujah, US troops clashed with heavily armed guerrillas in the streets for a second day, residents said.

Allawi's spokesman, Thaer al-Naqib, said the scattering of Fallujah's rebels would make it easier for the remnants to be tracked down. "Now that they have dispersed, we can finish them off as quickly as possible."

In Fallujah, just west of the capital, Marines and Iraqi troops were engaged in the time-consuming and risky task of securing the cramped and winding alleys of the city, house by house. Fearing booby-traps, snipers and suicide bombers, Marines resorted to blowing up suspect buildings with tank fire.

"There is still some resistance but it is much less now," said Gunnery-Sergeant Ishmael Castillo, a tank commander. "I saw about 25 people surrendering in Fallujah today."

Naqib told a news conference in Baghdad: "We believe we have succeeded in Fallujah, because Fallujah was a safe haven for terrorists and now it is not."

He showed pictures of what he said were captured arms and a basement "torture chamber".

US troops showed one international television reporter a compound which they said appeared to have been a command centre.

A mural showed crossed rifles with a hand pointing skywards over them and the words "God" and "Al Qaeda Organisation" in Arabic. Zarqawi's group, which has claimed responsibility for suicide car bombings and beheading foreign hostages, calls itself the Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq.

At what the troops said was a plant for making car bombs, car parts lay around that could be packed with explosives.

Naqib said that Fallujah's population of 300,000, many of whom fled before the offensive began, could start returning within days once the city was deemed safe.

Officials would survey damage caused during the fighting and arrange compensation to rebuild homes and businesses. Aid agencies have complained of a humanitarian disaster in Fallujah and it is not clear how long it will take to restore basic services.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq