US forces push through Fallujah

United States army and marine units pushed through the centre of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Tuesday, fighting bands of guerrillas in the streets and conducting house-to-house searches on the second day of a major offensive to retake the city from Islamic militants.

Fourteen Americans have been killed in the past two days across Iraq — including five in and around Fallujah, and nine others killed as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere.

A senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday the nine were killed on Monday south-west of Fallujah and in the capital.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Tuesday declared a nighttime curfew in Baghdad and its surroundings — the first curfew in the capital for a year — a day after a string of insurgent attacks in the city killed nine Iraqis and wounded more than 80.

Hundreds of guerrillas were swarming the streets of Ramadi, another insurgent stronghold 110km west of Baghdad where Allawi declared a curfew on Monday. Gunfire rang out in the city centre, and a destroyed car smeared with blood was seen.

Allawi called on Sunni Muslim fighters in Fallujah to lay down their weapons to spare the city and allow government forces to take control, saying: “The political solution is possible even if military operations are ongoing.”

Sunni party quits government

Iraq’s official Sunni Muslim political party quit the US-backed government on Tuesday in protest over the assault on Fallujah, but its only member to hold a ministerial post abandoned the group to keep his government position.

“The Islamic Party made the decision to withdraw from the government because of the military offensive in Fallujah, but I don’t share this opinion and decided to quit the party and remain in my post,” said Minister of Industry Hashem Al-Hassani. “To withdraw would not serve the interests of the Iraqi people.”

A spokesman for the Islamic Party, Iyad Samarrai, said top party officials had met earlier in the day with Allawi to demand he stop the Fallujah offensive and try to negotiate a peaceful settlement with insurgents there.

Zarqawi group claims attacks

Meanwhile, the al-Qaeda-linked group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for attacks in several areas around Iraq on Tuesday, including those on three police stations in Baquba, an internet statement said.

“The lions of al-Qaeda made an attack that included Baquba where the Jihadists could penetrate three police stations and killing more than 45 officers and [struck] an American chopper,” said the statement, signed by the “Military Wing” of al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers.

The group of Iraq’s most wanted man also claimed attacks in the northern city of Mosul “where the Jihadists fought against the rebels and the Americans … and so for Samarra and Al-Ramadi knowing that the heroes have the city under control”.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

At least 14 Iraqis, including nine police officers and national guards, were wounded in an attack on Tuesday on two police stations in the Baquba area north-east of Baghdad, hospital officials said.

Attackers pounded the station in the village of Buhruz south of Baquba with rockets and gunfire, destroying the building, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

Another police station in the Wahdat area west of Baquba was attacked by 10 to 15 armed men, police said, without providing further details.

The attacks came as United States troops and Iraqi soldiers surged into the heart of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, in the largest military onslaught since the war.

Armed rebels massed on the main street in neighbouring Ramadi after US snipers withdrew from their positions.

Ramadi was the scene of clashes between insurgents and US forces during the past 24 hours. At least seven Iraqis were killed, medical sources said. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa-AP