US troops pull back, bombing Falluja on bloody day

8.15am - By FADEL BADRAN

FALLUJA, Iraq - US Marines have eased their grip on Falluja, but details of a deal with former Iraqi army officers remain sketchy and new air strikes on the besieged city show a month-old insurgency was not over.

On another bloody day in the bloodiest month for US troops in Iraq, 10 soldiers were killed on Thursday -- including eight by an apparent suicide car bomber -- in attacks around Baghdad.

Within hours of Marine officers and Falluja's police chief saying troops were pulling back from some siege positions around the Sunni bastion west of Baghdad, US warplanes again pounded districts where as many as 2000 guerrillas are holed up.

As darkness fell, gunfire crackled across streets where ambulances raced to the scene of the bombings. Doctors say about 600 people have been killed since Marines encircled the city at the beginning of April after the killing of four American security guards, whose bodies were then mutilated in public.

Previous deals in Falluja, notably a cease-fire two weeks ago, have broken down and US air strikes this week and tough talk by President Bush seemed to herald a possible all-out assault. The Pentagon said it had sent more tanks to Falluja and other restive areas around Baghdad.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged restraint.

US officials are keen to stabilise the country before handing over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30. Annan, whose envoy is helping form a new administration, said more military force could stiffen guerrilla resistance.

The 10 latest US combat deaths brought to at least 125 the number of Americans killed in action this month, far outnumbering the toll in the three weeks it took to dash to Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein a year ago.

A total of 534 have been killed in action since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March last year.

Faced with violence such as the Baghdad car bomb and armed defiance in Falluja and the southern holy Shi'te city of Najaf, Bush signaled he had given US commanders a free hand.

"Our military commanders will take whatever actions necessary to secure Falluja," he said on Wednesday.

Bush's opinion poll ratings have slipped in the run-up to the US presidential election in November, but Secretary of State Colin Powell said showing US troops were back on top in Iraq could reverse the trend.

"April has been a particularly bad month for casualties... You can expect this to be reflected in the polls," Powell said.

"But I am also convinced that once we deal with this current difficult situation in Falluja and down in Najaf...people will recognise we are on top of it and the polls will reflect that."

Falluja police chief Sabar al-Janabi told Reuters the US withdrawal would be completed by Friday. US officers seemed to have backed away from insistence on conducting joint patrols with Iraqi forces inside the city, he said.

There was no word on previous US demands that guerrillas turn in heavy weapons.

A Marine spokesman in Falluja confirmed US forces were pulling back from some areas under a security deal agreed with former senior officers of Saddam's old Iraqi army.

But it was unclear who the men were or what influence they had over the guerrillas, some of whom, US officials say, are foreigners.

Thousands of civilians have fled the siege, a focus for increasing Iraqi dismay with the US-led occupation, especially among the Sunni minority dominant under Saddam.

A Reuters journalist watched Marines open fire on a minibus at a checkpoint on the outskirts, setting the vehicle ablaze.

Up to four civilians died, an Iraqi policeman said.

Such incidents have angered many Iraqis who welcomed the fall of Saddam.
A new poll conducted before the latest surge of violence showed Iraqis who disliked the outcome of the US-led war to oust Saddam slightly outnumbered those who felt life had improved.

Around Najaf, US forces set up roadblocks, tightening a squeeze on the Mehdi Army militia loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has taken refuge among the shrines.

US commanders believe they can isolate Sadr and turn factional differences among Shi'ite leaders to their advantage.

Sadr is popular with young, disaffected Shi'ites impatient for the power their 60 per cent majority could give them after decades of oppression.

But he is wanted over the murder of a rival cleric in Najaf last year and has plenty of Shi'ite foes.

In other violence on Thursday, a South African civilian was killed in a drive-by shooting near oil company offices in the southern city of Basra. The head of security for the vital northern oilfields was wounded in Kirkuk.

(Additional reporting by Akram Saleh in Falluja, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Najaf, Michael Battye and Joseph Logan in Baghdad and Saul Hudson in Copenhagen)

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq