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Conditions in Falluja are said to be desperate, after months in which militants held the city, and the US first bombarded what it called rebel positions, then invaded.



We simply cannot enter the city under such ferocious fighting
ICRC spokesman Ahmed Rawi

An ICRC spokesman told BBC News that Falluja's main hospital, on the outskirts of the city, had been freshly stocked with medical equipment, but that wounded people could not get there.

"The first concern we have is over the safety of the people in Falluja," Ahmed Rawi said.

"We simply cannot enter the city under such ferocious fighting."

He said the ICRC was negotiating with US forces to open a "humanitarian corridor" into the city.

The BBC's Jennifer Glasse, with US marines in Falluja, says tough battles are still being fought in the city's southern neighbourhoods.

She says marines are calling in aerial bombing raids to hit houses where insurgents are holed up, refusing to surrender.

The marines' commander says at least 55 insurgents were killed on Wednesday.

In nearby Ramadi, US forces were said to have fought a three-hour gun battle overnight, in which at least seven people were reported killed.

Several people were killed in a day of violence across Iraq on Wednesday, including at least 14 Iraqis who died in a suicide bombing in the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad.

The supreme leader of neighbouring Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday condemned "the massacre of civilians, women and children... the execution of wounded, the destruction of homes [and] mosques" by "infidels" in Falluja.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4021629.stm