US troops reinforce after Falluja air strike

8.16am

BAGHDAD - US troops stepped up pressure on the rebel-held Iraqi city of Falluja on Tuesday, cutting roads and reinforcing positions around the town as jets criss-crossed the sky ahead of an expected assault.

Falluja is bracing itself for a widely expected US-led offensive to crush al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his Muslim militant network.

Witnesses said US tanks and armoured vehicles blocked the main highway to Jordan that runs just north of Falluja, as warplanes roared overhead. Troops took up positions in empty buildings on the Sunni Muslim city's southern perimeter.

A civilian driver was shot dead near a US checkpoint on the highway, witnesses said. The military said it was checking the report. Only one road leading northwest out of Falluja, 50km west of Baghdad, was open to civilian traffic.

Many families have already fled Falluja fearing a US assault to bring the city under the interim government's control before elections due in January.

The US military said it carried out a "precision strike" at 3am (local time) on a Zarqawi safe in Falluja, killing one of his aides. It did not name the man or state his nationality.

Residents said one house was destroyed and three damaged in the strike. Hospital officials reported no casualties.

It was the second time in a few days the military claimed it had eliminated a Zarqawi associate without identifying him. On Saturday it said it captured a "senior leader" of the group in a raid in southern Falluja.

Interim Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the government was seeking a political solution in Falluja to "separate the local population from the foreign fighters, the terrorists".

"We are trying to exhaust all political channels and avenues before any final decision is made," he told the BBC.

Zebari said a failed US assault on Falluja in April was "mismanaged", after a lack of consultation with Iraqi leaders.

Falluja residents deny foreign fighters led by Zarqawi are in their midst. They say they will accept the return of Iraqi security forces, but want no Americans to set foot in the city.

US President George W. Bush's administration has decided some non-Iraqi prisoners captured Iraq are not entitled to protection by the Geneva Conventions, the New York Times said.

Unnamed US officials told the newspaper the administration had decided there were exceptions to previous US assertions that the conventions apply to all prisoners taken in Iraq.

Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings, hostage beheadings and other attacks, including the weekend slaughter of 49 army recruits and three civilian drivers on a remote road northeast of Baghdad.

Violence has surged since Ramadan started in mid-October.

Two roadside bombs blew up near police patrols in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday, killing one policeman and wounding seven, police said. Two civilians were also wounded.

Two car bombs, apparently intended for passing US convoys, exploded in the northern city of Mosul, causing no casualties. But gunfire after the blasts wounded two civilians, police said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq