US soldiers killed in ambush near Falluja

Soldiers at the scene said a vehicle apparently loaded with explosives blew up on Sunday as a convoy of US Marines and Army personnel passed by, and that assailants then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades from a grove of palm trees.

The attack was the first major loss inflicted on US troops in the area since the end of an offensive they launched last month in Falluja - a hotbed of resistance activity - after four US contractors were killed and their bodies mutilated in the city.

US Marines withdrew from the city earlier this month and handed over control of security in Falluja to a force including
officers from ousted Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's army.

List of names

Meanwhile, a US Marine officer provided Iraqi authorities with the names of 25 people sought in the killing of the four American civilian contractors.

"This is a priority for the coalition troops that they take action against those people implicated in the murders," Col John Toolan, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, told reporters after handing the list to Falluja's police chief, Sabr Fadil al-Janabi.

Names of the 25 people were not released, but Toolan described them as a mix of Falluja residents and outsiders. He would not say whether any of them were non-Iraqi "foreign fighters."

"You are responsible for investigation, if you were to identify and apprehend those people responsible, it would go a long way in building trust with the coalition forces," Toolan told al-Janabi.

Toolan said the suspects would be tried in an Iraqi court before an Iraqi judge.

He expressed confidence that the police chief would follow up on the request but acknowledged it would be difficult in a city where anti-Americanism is as high as anywhere in Iraq.

"We'll see how it turns out," Toolan said. "It's going to be a tough job to make the arrests."

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