Bodies litter streets in rubble of Falluja

An Iraqi nurse treats 2-year-old child Mustafa Adnan, at a Baghdad hospital, who lost a leg when his house in Falluja's Jolan district was shelled during fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents in the war-torn city November 14, 2004. U.S. tanks shelled and machine-gunned rebels still holding out in Falluja in heavy fighting that was preventing an Iraqi Red Crescent convoy from getting aid to civilians trapped in the city for six days. Photo by Ali Jasim/Reuters

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AMERICAN and Iraqi forces hunted rebels among the rubble and ruin of Falluja yesterday as the city fell quiet after six days of intense fighting.
No outside aid has reached civilians in the city since the offensive began last Monday, and yesterday US forces kept an Iraqi Red Crescent aid convoy of seven trucks and ambulances waiting at the main hospital near a bridge on the edge of the city.
Marines also found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman. The body was lying in the street covered with a blood-soaked cloth. Two foreign women were kidnapped last month: Margaret Hassan, 59, the director of Care International in Iraq, and Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born resident of Iraq.
It was reported last night that a fundamental Islamic group freed two women relatives of Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister. The group, who kidnapped Mr Allawi's cousin, his wife and daughter-in-law on Tuesday, had demanded the assault on Falluja be called off or the hostages would be killed.
Reports from within Falluja yesterday said bodies lay in the streets, homes and mosques were destroyed, and power and telephone lines were down.
US marines swept through one of the last rebel redoubts in a southern quarter of the city that had been identified as a bastion for foreign fighters loyal to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, an al Qaeda ally. At least 38 US and six Iraqi soldiers, and more than 1200 insurgents, have been killed since Monday. It is not known how many civilians have died.
Speaking from the hospital in Falluja, Marine Colonel Mike Shupp said: "These are pretty diehard. These people down there are not sniping or firing, but waiting in their defences for the marines coming to their buildings. That's when they open fire."
However, Col Shupp said the Red Crescent did not need to deliver aid to civilians in Falluja and questioned whether there were any.
He said: "There is no need to bring supplies in because we have supplies of our own for the people. Now that the bridge is open, I will bring out casualties and all aid work can be done here."
Jamal al Karbouli, leader of the Red Crescent convoy, said he was determined to wait until they were allowed into the city.
Mr Allawi also said he doubted reports of civilians in the city.
This contradicted accounts from residents inside the city, where intense violence has halted medical services and made any independent assessment impossible since Monday.
"Our situation is very hard," said one resident contacted by telephone in the central Hay al Dubat neighbourhood. "We don't have food or water. My seven children all have severe diarrhoea.
"One of my sons was wounded by shrapnel last night and he's bleeding, but I can't do anything to help him."
The man, who gave his name only as Abu Mustafa, said he had seen US troops and Iraqi national guardsmen in his street as explosions rang out. He said: "There were bodies lying in the street."
It is thought about half of Falluja's 300,000 people fled the fighting in the city, but there are no accurate reports of how many civilians remain.
Tank and artillery fire shook the city for much of the day yesterday, but by nightfall the fighting had died away.
In April, 2000 US marines fought for three weeks and failed to take Falluja. This time, six times that number were sent and the city fell in six days.
Major General Richard Natonski of the US Marine Corps planned the ground attack. He said: "We had the green light this time and we went all the way."
During the six-day assault, more than 20 different types of planes were used in bombing swarms and US soldiers faked attacks in order to confuse the insurgents within the city.
General Natonski said the operation had been a "flawless execution of the plan we drew up. We are actually ahead of schedule." He said more than 1200 insurgents were killed.
Later, Lieut Gen John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said 31 American soldiers and six Iraqi troops had died. He added that the number of American soldiers wounded was "up in the high 200s". The military later amended the US toll to 38 dead and 275 wounded.
Although the city has been subdued, pockets of rebel fighters remained active yesterday, and as US soldiers began clearing weapons and fighters from every one of Falluja's 50,000 buildings, bands of insurgents were still roaming freely in some neighbourhoods.


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