- BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. forces
battled insurgents around the rebel stronghold of Fallujah on Sunday after
two American soldiers died when their helicopters crashed south of Baghdad.
Many Iraqi Christians skipped Mass following a spate of bombings at churches
in the capital.
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- Fierce clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents broke
out on a highway east of Fallujah and in the southern part of the city,
witnesses said. The road, which leads to Baghdad, has been completely blocked.
Residents reported fresh aerial and artillery attacks as explosions boomed
across the city.
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- Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Askari and
Shuhada neighbourhoods in eastern and southern Fallujah as families began
to flee the area, residents reported. They said a Humvee was seen burning
in the eastern edge of the city. Hospital officials said three civilians
were injured in the clashes.
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- Fallujah, 65 kilometres west of the capital, is considered
the toughest stronghold of insurgents. Commanders have been speaking of
a possible new offensive to wrest it out and other cities of militants'
control, and the Marines said Saturday they had tightened their cordon
around the city to keep suspected terrorists from fleeing the area. Still,
officials have said that intensified air strikes and fighting over the
past week don't mark the start of a new operation.
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- South of Baghdad, two Army OH-58 helicopters went down
about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, the 1st Cavalry Division said. The deaths of
their pilots brought to six the number of American troops killed in two
days, following car bombings on Friday that killed four servicemen.
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- The division said the cause of the crashes had not been
determined.
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- Negotiations aimed at restoring government control in
Fallujah without requiring a ground assault have faltered.
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- Fallujah clerics on Sunday repeated their offer to return
to the negotiating table if the U.S. stopped its bombing, while blaming
the Iraqi government for the violence. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi had threatened
military action if Fallujah didn't turn over terror mastermind Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi.
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- ìWe are still ready to go back to the talks and
open new channels of dialogue,î said negotiator Abdul Hamid Jadou.
But he said Mr. Allawi is ìresponsible for each drop of blood being
spilled in Fallujah. This government sided with the Americans in bombing
the innocent people who are fasting on Ramadan.î
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- Iraq's interim government responded by renewing its call
to Fallujah to hand over ìterroristsî or face attack.
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- "The ongoing threat of terrorists to our people
and the use of some areas and cities as a haven for them is something the
government cannot accept or tolerate," national security adviser Qassem
Dawoud said in a statement Sunday.
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- The Sunday attacks followed an overnight strike by U.S.
jets, blasting what the American command said was a checkpoint operated
by the feared Tawhid and Jihad terror movement of Jordanian-born extremist
Mr. al-Zarqawi. Three people were killed, according to the Fallujah hospital.
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- On Saturday, hospital officials said U.S. artillery shells
hit a house in Halabsa village, 16 kilometres southwest of the city, killing
a 3-year-old girl and injuring four family members.
-
- In Jordan, meanwhile, a military prosecutor charged al-Zarqawi
and 12 other militants for an alleged al-Qaeda linked plot to attack the
U.S. Embassy in Amman and Jordanian government targets with chemical and
conventional weapons, government officials said Sunday.
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- Mr. al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, and three others in the
group are at large and will be tried in absentia, officials said.
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- Predawn bombings Saturday at five churches in four separate
Baghdad neighbourhoods caused no casualties but have alarmed the Christian
minority community, which saw co-ordinated attacks in August against five
Iraqi churches ó four in Baghdad and one in Mosul ó that
killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more.
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- That had been the first significant strike against Iraq's
estimated 800,000 Christians since the U.S. invasion began last year.
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- U.S. commanders had warned of a possible increase in
rebel attacks during Ramadan, when insurgent activity surged last year.
In hopes of preventing rebel attacks, U.S. troops had stepped up operations
in Sunni areas north and west of the capital. It included two days of air
and ground attacks Thursday and Friday against the main rebel bastion of
Fallujah.
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- Fallujah talks had broken down Thursday after clerics
rejected an "impossible" Iraqi government demand to turn over
Mr. al-Zarqawi and his group, responsible for numerous car-bombings and
the beheading of American and other foreign hostages.
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- The clerics said the Jordanian terrorist was not in the
city, a claim that U.S. and Iraqi authorities dispute.
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- Fallujah clerics offered Saturday to resume peace talks
if the Americans suspended attacks and released the city's chief negotiator,
Sheik Khaled al-Jumeili, who was arrested Friday.
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