US seizes most of Falluja, militants take PM's cousin hostage

1.00pm

FALLUJA, Iraq - US and Iraqi forces captured almost three quarters of Falluja, but Islamist militants struck back, kidnapping three of the prime minister's relatives and killing two dozen people around Iraq.

Militants threatened to behead interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's cousin and two female relatives unless he called off the US-led "Operation Fair Dawn" to wrest control of Falluja from insurgents.

The head of Iraqi forces in Falluja said they had found "slaughterhouses" where hostages had been held and killed, along with records of victims.

But Major-General Abdul-Qader Jassim told reporters he could not say if there was any clue of the fate of at least nine foreign hostages still missing.

Rebels, in a video given to Reuters, said they had snatched more than 20 Iraqi national guards in Falluja, but did not say how and made no specific threats.

The footage showed masked guerrillas pointing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers at a group of men with their backs turned dressed in National Guard uniforms.

Air strikes, shelling and mortars shook parts of Falluja during intense clashes interspersed with periods of relative calm, a Reuters reporter in the Sunni Muslim city said. US forces said they bombed a mosque after being fired on.

"The fighting, as you all know, in an urban area is very close and very violent," the US Marines commander at Falluja, Lieutenant-General John Sattler, told reporters, adding the insurgents could no longer coordinate their resistance.

"They are now in small pockets, blind, moving throughout the city. We will continue to hunt them down and destroy them."

Senior US commanders said on Tuesday most rebel leaders had slipped out of the city, leaving the command of the remaining 2,000-3,000 fighters to relatively junior ranks.

A Marines spokesman in Falluja said the Americans now held 70 per cent of the city, adding: "(We) still need to go house to house in that area to ensure there aren't any anti-Iraqi forces left."

Insurgents staged a series of attacks around Iraq on Wednesday, killing more than two dozen people in bombings and shootings from Baghdad to the far north.

Allawi and US commanders say it is vital to recapture Falluja from foreign militants led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as well as Saddam Hussein loyalists so national elections can go ahead in January.

Iraq and the US say Zarqawi and other militants had turned Falluja, known as the city of mosques, into the epicentre of insurgency, from where bombings, killings and kidnappings aimed at driving out US forces and other foreigners were directed.

Allawi's 75-year-old cousin, Ghazi Allawi, his cousin's wife and their daughter-in-law were seized near their home in Baghdad on Tuesday, the prime minister's spokesman said.

The previously unknown Ansar al-Jihad group said the hostages would die unless Allawi, "head of the Iraqi agents", halted the offensive that began on Monday, and freed prisoners.

"If the agent government does not meet our demands within 48 hours we will behead them," it said in a statement dated Wednesday and posted on an Islamist web site.

Allawi's office said policy would not change: "This is yet another criminal act by terrorists and will not thwart the determination of the government to combat terrorism."

Jassim told reporters: "We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Falluja that were used by these people and the black clothing that they used to wear to identify themselves."

He did not link the finds to Zarqawi, whose group has claimed several hostage beheadings.

Nor could he say if the records listed any of at least nine foreign hostages still missing: "I did not look that closely."

Among the missing are British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan, Polish-Iraqi woman Teresa Borcz Khalifa, two French reporters and two American men.

Iraqi soldiers said banners used as backdrops in videos of hostages had been found in the houses as well as CDs labelled "Beheading of XXX", the US military said.

"It was apparent, the soldiers said, there had been numerous killings there," the military said.

Washington says 11 US and two Iraqi soldiers have died so far in "Fair Dawn". It says rebel losses have been higher than expected and civilian casualties low, without giving details. Residents say several civilians have died, including children, although no clear figure has emerged.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "very worried" about the plight of the wounded in Falluja.

An ICRC spokesman also said thousands of civilian refugees needed water, food, medical care and shelter.

In Baghdad, masked gunmen blocked a major street and several bombs exploded, one killing seven people. A 48-hour closure of the international airport was extended into a third day.

At least nine civilians were killed and 24 wounded in fighting in Baiji, 180 km north of Baghdad and there were running battles in at least three major cities.

A roadside bomb killed six national guards and another killed a US soldier, to the north of Baghdad.

- REUTERS

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq