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.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS