U.S. Poised For Fallujah Assault

[David]

AP


More than 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines have taken positions around Fallujah for an expected assault, as U.S. jets Friday pummeled insurgent targets and troops blocked key roads. Iraq's prime minister warned the "window is closing" to avert an offensive.

Insurgents struck back Friday, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding five others in a rocket attack on a U.S. position. Clashes were reported at other checkpoints around the city and in the east and north of Fallujah late Friday.

For the past three nights, long convoys of American soldiers from Baghdad and Baqouba have rolled onto a dust-blown base on the city's outskirts. Commanders here have been coordinating plans either to fight their way into Fallujah or isolate it from the rest of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.

In Brussels, Belgium, Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, warned that the "window is closing" to avert an assault on Fallujah, 40 miles west of the capital. Allawi must give the final order for the offensive, part of a campaign to curb the insurgency ahead of national elections planned for late January.

Sunni Muslim clerics have threatened to boycott the election if Fallujah is attacked, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned U.S., British and Iraqi authorities that a military campaign and "increased insurgent violence" could put elections at risk.

In other developments:


Nepal's Foreign Minister confirmed a Nepalese man abducted by gunmen Monday along with an American, a Filipino, and three Iraqis had been freed by his captors in Baghdad. Two Iraqi guards were released earlier in the week.


Two Lebanese hostages held for more than a month were freed after a ransom was paid, one of the former hostages said Friday.


A private security company, Global Risk Strategies, said a British contractor was killed in a suicide car bombing at Baghdad airport Wednesday that also injured several Iraqi civilians.


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.


Four buses carrying pilgrims to Karbala plunged into a river Friday near Latifiyah in central Iraq, killing 18 people on board, hospital officials said. The victims were Iraqi Shiites mainly from Baghdad who were heading for Friday prayers in the holy city of Karbala.


Humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, announced it was closing its operations in Iraq. CARE International withdrew from the country after its national director, Margaret Hassan, was kidnapped last month.

U.S. aircraft struck targets around Fallujah five times in 12 hours, starting late Thursday and continuing into the morning Friday. Targets included a system of barriers rigged with bombs, a command post, suspected fighting positions and a weapons cache, according to Lt. Nathan Braden, of 1st Marine Division.

Mortar shells exploded on a small U.S. base at Saqlawiyah west of Fallujah, the military said. U.S. troops returned fire, killing an undetermined number of insurgents, the military said.

Iraqi authorities closed a border crossing point with Syria and U.S. troops set up checkpoints along major routes into the city. Marines fired on a civilian vehicle that did not stop at a checkpoint in Fallujah, killing an Iraqi woman and wounding her husband, according to the U.S. military and witnesses. The car didn't notice the checkpoint at the time, witnesses said.

"Marines fire upon vehicles only as a last resort when verbal and visual warnings to stop fail. Such was the case today," the Marines said in an e-mailed response.

The violence came a day after two American Marines were killed and four others were wounded Thursday in fighting west of Baghdad. The Marine command gave no further details, citing security.

A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle north of Baghdad Thursday.

Elsewhere, U.S. Cobra attack helicopters fired Friday on rebels operating an illegal checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing or wounding an "unknown number" of insurgents, the U.S. military said.

Allawi has demanded that Fallujah hand over foreign extremists, including Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers, and allow government troops to enter the city.

"We intend to liberate the people and to bring the rule of law to Fallujah," Allawi told reporters in Brussels after meeting with European Union leaders. "The window really is closing for a peaceful settlement."

Allawi, a secular Shiite Muslim with strong ties to the CIA and U.S. State Department, urged the Europeans to forge a "close and strategic partnership" with Iraq and called on NATO to steep up plans to train 1,000 officers a year for the fledgling Iraqi military.

EU leaders responded with a euro30 million (US$38.6 million) offer to fund elections scheduled in January, including training for Iraqi vote monitors.

However, French President Jacques Chirac ? who opposed the Iraq war ? left Brussels early and skipped a meeting with Allawi to fly to Abu Dhabi to pay his respects to the new president of the United Arab Emirates, who took over following the death of his father Tuesday.

Many saw the move as a French snub of Allawi, although Chirac denied that, describing his relations with the new Iraqi authorities as "excellent."

Allawi faces strong opposition to a Fallujah offensive from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority. The Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars has threatened to boycott the January election and mount a nationwide civil disobedience campaign.

A public outcry over civilian casualties prompted the Bush administration to call off the three-week siege of Fallujah last April, after which the city fell under control of radical clerics and their mujahedeen followers.

Those warnings were echoed by Annan in a letter dated Oct. 31 to American, British and Iraqi leaders. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press.

"I have in mind not only the risk of increased insurgent violence, but also reports of major military offensives being planned by the multinational force in key localities such as Fallujah," Annan wrote.

Nevertheless, U.S. and Iraqi authorities appear committed to a showdown with a city that has become the symbol of Iraqi resistance throughout the Arab world.

American troops will face an estimated 3,000 insurgents dug in behind defenses and booby traps. Military planners believe there are about 1,200 hardcore insurgents inside Fallujah ? at least half of them Iraqis. Those rebels are bolstered by insurgent cells with up to 2,000 fighters in surrounding towns and countryside.

In hopes of assuaging public outrage, Iraqi authorities have put together a team of administrators to run Fallujah after the offensive and have earmarked $75 million (euro 58 million) to repair the damage, Marine Maj. Jim West said Thursday.

The strategy is similar to one used when U.S. troops restored government authority in the Shiite holy city Najaf last August after weeks of fighting with militiamen.

The attack force includes one battalion from the Army's Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division, which has been placed under Marine command. The division's 2nd Brigade is relieving Marines of control of surrounding farmland and villages.

The Army's Germany-based 1st Infantry Division also sent a battalion from its base near Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, that is expected to join the Marine-led assault.

Troops from the Army's 2nd Infantry Division are expected to seal off western approaches to the city. Also, an Army Military Police battalion, based at Fort Carson, Colo., and a tank platoon and battalion of the Army's new Stryker armored vehicles, from the 25th Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., have been earmarked for the operation.

The massed forces also include scattered Army logistics units, a Military Intelligence company, Psychological Operations troops and Air Force forward air controllers to help pinpoint airstrikes.