FIGHTING continued in Fallujah for an eighth day yesterday as United States warplanes bombarded hard core rebel areas in the devastated Iraqi city.
Despite US claims over the weekend that they were now in control of the entire city, several pockets of die-hard militant resistance remained.
Aid agencies were again stopped by US forces from reaching the combat area in the town amid growing con
cern about the scale of the civilian toll wrought by the military operation.
As the operation continued in Fallujah, fighting erupted in other parts of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim region with clashes reported in Mosul and Baquba, while rebels hit oil facilities in the north.
Meanwhile, a new audio tape emerged purporting to be from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in which the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist called on militants outside Fallujah to mobilise and attack US supply lines across Iraq.
The US marine general who commanded the fight to take Fallujah said those who remained were the rebel hard core who would be killed. There was no aid crisis in the city, he said.
"What you’re seeing now are some of the hardliners, they seem to be better equipped than some of the earlier ones, we’ve seen flak jackets on some of them," Major General Richard Natonski said. "But we’re more determined and we’re going to wipe them out," he said.
While US forces have won a military victory, the process of rebuilding Fallujah, helping about 150,000 residents who fled and preparing it for January elections could take months.
Iraq’s Red Crescent group sent seven lorry-loads of food and medicine to the city, but US forces blocked the aid convoy at Fallujah’s main hospital and said it could not enter. The convoy turned back yesterday after three days of frustration.
"It’s our third day here at the hospital and all we have done is receive promises from the Americans," Hassan Rawi, a member of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said. "We are very worried."
US commanders say they are working to deliver assistance to the city themselves, and urged any Iraqis needing aid to go to Fallujah’s main hospital on the western outskirts.
Iraq’s interim prime minister Iyad Allawi said he did not believe any civilians were killed in the offensive, which has left 38 US soldiers, six Iraqi troops and more than 1,200 insurgents dead. But witness accounts contradicted him.
A member of an Iraqi relief committee told al-Jazeera television he saw 22 bodies buried in rubble in Fallujah’s northern Jolan district on Sunday. "Of the 22 bodies, five were found in one house as well as two children whose ages did not exceed 15, and a man with an artificial leg," Mohammed Farhan Awad said. "Some of the bodies we found had been eaten by stray dogs and cats. It was a very painful sight."
Aid agencies have described the situation as a humanitarian disaster.
US forces operating in Fallujah yesterday said they had found a bunker with reinforced tunnels leading to stores of weapons, including an anti-aircraft artillery gun.
Several suspected hostage holding cells have also been uncovered in the operation although no word has yet been heard of Margaret Hassan, a British aid worker with Iraqi citizenship who was kidnapped last month. The body of a Western woman found in Fallujah on Sunday has yet to be identified.
More than 10,000 US troops have been involved in the operation to wrest Fallujah from an estimated 2,000-3,000 rebels.
Meanwhile, the US yesterday suffered a double blow in its efforts to maintain a multinational presence in Iraq when both Hungary and the Netherlands said they would not extend their missions in the country. Hungary will withdraw its forces by the end of 2004 while Dutch troops will leave in mid March next year.
