US forces on offensive in Iraq, taunted by al Qaeda

4.00pm - By LUKE BAKER

BAGHDAD - US-led forces launched offensives in three Iraqi rebel strongholds on Thursday on a day Osama bin Laden's deputy ridiculed the US military, saying their defeat in Iraq was just a matter of time.

US-led forces killed nearly two dozen insurgents in a town near the Syrian border and bombed targets in Falluja, west of Baghdad, for the third straight day.

Troops mounted a major offensive in Tal Afar, a suspected haven for foreign fighters about 100km east of the Syrian border in northern Iraq, and went into the tense town of Samarra north of Baghdad, while keeping up pressure on Falluja.

The fighting in Tal Afar killed 22 insurgents and wounded more than 70 people, a local government health official said.

Ayman al-Zawahri, the number two figure in al Qaeda, poured scorn on efforts by the United States to quell the insurgency which Iraq's US-backed government says is fuelled partly by foreigners linked to al Qaeda.

Zawahri appeared in a new videotape aired on the Arabic Al Jazeera television station, taunting Washington by saying fighters had turned US plans for the oil-rich country upside down.

"The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a matter of time. In both countries, if they continue they will bleed to death and if they withdraw they lose everything," Zawahri said, appearing on the tape wearing a white turban with a machine gun at his side.

Al Jazeera did not say how it obtained the tape, which was aired two days before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States blamed on bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in footage aired by Al Arabiya television on Thursday Iraq had captured four important al Qaeda figures who had entered the country from abroad. He gave no more details.

In Tal Afar, there were no immediate reports of any US or Iraqi government casualties in the fighting which local government sources said had killed 57 since Saturday.

"The situation is critical," Rabee Yassin, general manager for health in Nineveh province, told Reuters. "Ambulances and medical supplies cannot get to Tal Afar because of the ongoing military operations."

US forces said the assault was in response to provocation after they and Iraqi security forces "were repeatedly attacked by a large terrorist element that has displaced local Iraqi security forces throughout recent weeks".

Further south, US warplanes bombed rebel-held Falluja for a third night. The US military said the assault was part of a "precision strike" on a base for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant Washington says is allied to al Qaeda.

However, doctors in Falluja said at least eight people were killed. Doctor Rafi Hayad said four of them were children and two women. Iraq's Health Ministry said at least 16 people had been killed in fighting in Falluja in the past 24 hours.

Reuters Television pictures showed several bloodied and heavily bandaged children being treated in a Falluja hospital.

The United States blames Zarqawi for masterminding a series of suicide bomb attacks and the killing of several hostages. It has offered a US$25 million reward for his capture.

The past few days have seen a surge in attacks and clashes in Iraq that pushed the official Pentagon US death toll for the war to above 1000. The Pentagon has admitted that US and Iraqi forces are not in control of strongholds of the insurgency like Falluja, Ramadi and Samarra.

US forces entered Samarra on Thursday for the first time in weeks to try to re-establish Iraqi government control there.

Besides trying to contain the insurgency, Iraq's government is also grappling with a hostage crisis.

Two Italian women aid workers and two Iraqi colleagues were snatched from their office in central Baghdad in broad daylight on Tuesday. No word has yet emerged from their captors.

Since April, people from more than two dozen countries have been kidnapped as guerrillas have tried to force foreign troops and firms to leave. More than 20 foreign hostages have been killed, including two Italians.

On a brighter note, the International Monetary Fund said Iraq could have an IMF-backed economic programme with financing in place by the end of 2004 following "good progress" made in talks last week in Paris.

However, the fund said Iraq will first have to clear its $80 million in arrears to the global lender before aid can flow under an IMF post-conflict facility, which generally comes with fewer conditions than other more formal programmes.

Dawson said further meetings with Iraq's interim government would take place in early October around the IMF's annual meeting in Washington.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq