US forces yesterday warned residents of Fallujah through loud-speakers and leaflets that they would detain any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the rebel-held Iraqi city.
US troops also urged residents, in Arabic, to help them capture "terrorists" and warned women and children to leave the Sunni Muslim city, locals said.
The US military had no immediate comment.
Witnesses said US troops blocked roads around Fallujah and clashed with insurgents on the eastern and southeastern edges of the city yesterday. The US military also mounted fresh air strikes on parts of the city yesterday, wit-nesses said, ahead of a major offensive to crush insurgents.
They said insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at US troops who were shelling from around the eastern and southeastern edges of the city.
Hospital officials said they were waiting for clashes to ease before sending out ambulances. Overnight air strikes had killed three people and wounded four, they said. There was no immediate word from the US military on the latest clashes.
It said earlier that its warplanes had mounted five strikes on rebel targets in Fallujah within seven hours overnight, hitting an arms cache, a rebel command post and other targets.
Residents said five houses were destroyed.
They said troops had sealed off all roads in and out of the Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 people, including the highway leading to the borders with Jordan and Syria, as US Marines prepared for a full assault designed to crush the rebels before nationwide elections in January.
Syrian officials also said the Iraqis closed a crossing point on the two countries' common border.
US Marines say they are awaiting orders from US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is visiting Europe, before storming Fallujah and Ramadi, another Sunni city and rebel stronghold west of Baghdad.
Most of Fallujah's population has already fled.
Insurgents also killed two US Marines and wounded four others in fighting in the area, the US military said yesterday.
The two Marines were killed on Thursday in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah, but the Marines refused to say where and how they died. In addition, a US soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle on Thursday north of Baghdad.
Three British soldiers were killed on Thursday south of Baghdad and eight others were wounded when a suicide driver blew up his vehicle at a checkpoint. An Iraqi translator also died in the attack -- the single biggest loss of life for the British since August last year.
The Britons were part of the Black Watch regiment, a Scottish unit shifted to central Iraq from the relatively quiet south to free up US forces for the planned assault on Fallujah and other insurgent bastions north and west of the capital.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair had agreed to a US request to move British troops to central Iraq despite considerable opposition at home, even within his Labour Party.
Scottish Nationalist Party spokesman Angus Robertson warned that the deaths would have "profound implications" for public opinion in Scotland, where the Black Watch regiment is recruited.
The deteriorating security situation prompted the humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres to announce it was closing its operations in Iraq. CARE International withdrew from the country after its national director, Margaret Hassan, was kidnapped last month.
Also on Thursday in Ramadi, an Army unit attached to the Marines discovered a youth center boobytrapped with bombs, with a wire leading to a local mosque.
At another mosque in Ramadi, they found more than two tonnes of explosives along with other devices, including rifles, artillery rounds and mortar rounds.
An Iraqi known for cooperating with Americans was killed near Ramadi, police said. The assailants stopped a car carrying Sheik Bezei Ftaykhan, ordered the driver to leave and pumped about 30 bullets into the sheik's body, police said.
Yesterday, Nepalese Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat confirmed a Nepalese man abducted by gunmen on Monday along with an American, a Filipino and three Iraqis had been freed by his captors in Baghdad.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
RSS