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US battles insurgents in Fallujah

US forces battled insurgents around the rebel stronghold of Fallujah yesterday. Many Iraqi Christians skipped Mass following bombings at churches in the capital.

Fierce clashes between US troops and insurgents broke out on a highway east of Fallujah and in the southern part of the city, witnesses said. The road, which leads to Baghdad, has been completely blocked. Residents reported fresh aerial and artillery attacks as explosions boomed across the city.

Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the eastern neighborhood of Askari and southern area of Shuhada as families began to flee the area, residents reported. They said a Humvee was seen burning in the eastern edge of the city. Hospital officials said three civilians were injured in the clashes.

Yesterday, Fallujah clerics repeated their offer to return to the negotiating table if the US stopped its bombing, while blaming the Iraqi government for the violence. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi had threatened military action if Fallujah didn't turn over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"We are still ready to go back to the talks and open new channels of dialogue," said negotiator Abdul Hamid Jadou. But he said Allawi is "responsible for each drop of blood being spilled in Fallujah. This government sided with the Americans in bombing the innocent people who are fasting [on] Ramadan."

Iraq's interim government responded by renewing a call to Fallujah to hand over "terrorists" or face attack.

"The ongoing threat of terrorists to our people and the use of some areas and cities as a haven for them is something the government cannot accept or tolerate," national security adviser Qassem Dawoud said in a statement yesterday.

Meanwhile, police in Kerbala said gunmen ambushed a minibus carrying nine Iraqi police recruits home from a training course in Jordan, killing all of them.

The attack happened late on Saturday as the men were passing between the volatile towns of Latifiya and Yusufiya, about 35km southwest of Baghdad.

"They were returning from a training course in Amman," a police spokesman said. "No one survived and the attackers escaped."

Insurgents regularly attack military convoys and vehicles carrying foreign contractors on the main road which leads south from Baghdad towards the holy city of Kerbala.
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