Bush warns Falluja rebels as marines mount new raids

8.00am

FALLUJA, Iraq - US Marines launched new air and ground attacks in Falluja on Wednesday, and President George W Bush said his troops will do whatever it takes to eliminate guerrilla activity in the Iraqi city.

"Our military commanders will take whatever actions necessary to secure Falluja," Bush said, as helicopter gunships and jet aircraft pounded several districts across the Sunni bastion west of Baghdad.

The previous 24 hours saw the most devastating display of US warplane firepower since American forces encircled Falluja three weeks ago in response to the killing of four American contractors and the mutilation of their bodies in the city.

Bush, seeking re-election in November with Iraq a burning campaign issue, said there were "pockets of resistance" in the city but "most of Falluja is returning to normal".

Black smoke rose above the palm-dotted Golan district and heavy firing echoed elsewhere but US commanders said they were holding back from an all-out assault on the city of 300,000 in hopes that guerrillas might yet agree to turn in heavy weapons.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, whose organisation is helping form an Iraqi government to replace the US-led occupation administration on June 30, urged US restraint.

"Violent military action by an occupying power against inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse," Annan said.

With Falluja doctors saying some 600 people have been killed in the siege, US forces are wary that further bloodshed in the city -- about 50km from Baghdad -- could inflame public opinion across Iraq and the Arab world.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said US commanders were talking to tribal sheikhs to try to get them to influence the guerrillas, but had to defend themselves. "Falluja will be resolved one way or the other in the near future," he said.

There were no reports of major civilian casualties in Falluja in the latest fighting, but the severity of the bombardment dismayed some residents.

"This attack shows the frustration in the ranks of American soldiers in Iraq and the American political defeat," said Ali Abdullah. "We have uncovered the treachery and barbarity of the US army."

In Falluja a year ago, US soldiers killed and wounded dozens of demonstrators, angering Sunnis in a city that has become a byword for resistance to the US-led occupation.

A year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, who spent his 67th birthday in the custody of US forces on Wednesday, American troops are trying to quell twin threats to the new order in Iraq -- from the Falluja guerrillas and Shi'ite rebels in the south.

More than 115 US soldiers have been killed in combat this month -- higher than the number killed in the three weeks it took to topple Saddam. Since US-led forces invaded Iraq in March last year, at least 520 US soldiers have died in action.

Three soldiers in US-led coalition forces, including two Ukrainians, died on Wednesday. Five policemen were killed in a gunbattle in the northern city of Mosul and three Iraqis were killed by a car bomb that missed a US convoy near Falluja.

The US approach in both Falluja and Najaf now seems to be to try and tighten the encirclement of guerrillas and pummel their positions with heavy weaponry when they can without killing civilians or hitting sensitive places like mosques.

Twice in as many days, commanders have deployed the AC-130 gunship, first used in Vietnam, to blitz ground positions with cannon and machinegun fire. One attack killed nearly 60 Shi'ite fighters near Najaf on Monday, US officials said. A similar raid struck Falluja on Tuesday.

US forces could face an even more delicate dilemma in the southern city of Najaf, where a radical cleric from Iraq's Shi'ite majority, Moqtada al-Sadr, has taken refuge among the shrines with his several thousand strong Mehdi army militia.

An aide to Sadr -- wanted by an Iraqi judge in connection with the murder of another cleric -- was quick to echo local accusations that many civilians died in Monday's attack near Kufa, the heaviest in a three-week standoff.

Qais al-Khazaaly said a US incursion into Najaf would "transform the situation into a Shi'ite Islamic confrontation with the Americans". Sadr has vowed to unleash suicide bombers.

But other Shi'ite factions in the holy city offered comfort to US commanders who believe they can isolate Sadr. Many local people are impatient with the violence because it has driven away the pilgrims who drive the city's economy.

"We are tired of what is happening here. Look around you. Most of the shops are closed," said Ali Khalid al-Unezi. "Who will pay the bills? Is it Moqtada?... We will all be happy the day they are driven out of the city."

Colonel Brad May, commander of the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment outside Najaf, said: "Our goal is to continue to pressure Sadr to understand that we are not going away."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq