US forces yesterday warned residents of Fallujah through loud-speakers and leaflets that they would detain any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the rebel-held Iraqi city.
US troops also urged residents, in Arabic, to help them capture "terrorists" and warned women and children to leave the Sunni Muslim city, locals said.
The US military had no immediate comment.
Witnesses said US troops blocked roads around Fallujah and clashed with insurgents on the eastern and southeastern edges of the city yesterday. The US military also mounted fresh air strikes on parts of the city yesterday, wit-nesses said, ahead of a major offensive to crush insurgents.
They said insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at US troops who were shelling from around the eastern and southeastern edges of the city.
Hospital officials said they were waiting for clashes to ease before sending out ambulances. Overnight air strikes had killed three people and wounded four, they said. There was no immediate word from the US military on the latest clashes.
It said earlier that its warplanes had mounted five strikes on rebel targets in Fallujah within seven hours overnight, hitting an arms cache, a rebel command post and other targets.
Residents said five houses were destroyed.
They said troops had sealed off all roads in and out of the Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 people, including the highway leading to the borders with Jordan and Syria, as US Marines prepared for a full assault designed to crush the rebels before nationwide elections in January.
Syrian officials also said the Iraqis closed a crossing point on the two countries' common border.
US Marines say they are awaiting orders from US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is visiting Europe, before storming Fallujah and Ramadi, another Sunni city and rebel stronghold west of Baghdad.
Most of Fallujah's population has already fled.
Insurgents also killed two US Marines and wounded four others in fighting in the area, the US military said yesterday.
The two Marines were killed on Thursday in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah, but the Marines refused to say where and how they died. In addition, a US soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle on Thursday north of Baghdad.
Three British soldiers were killed on Thursday south of Baghdad and eight others were wounded when a suicide driver blew up his vehicle at a checkpoint. An Iraqi translator also died in the attack -- the single biggest loss of life for the British since August last year.
The Britons were part of the Black Watch regiment, a Scottish unit shifted to central Iraq from the relatively quiet south to free up US forces for the planned assault on Fallujah and other insurgent bastions north and west of the capital.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair had agreed to a US request to move British troops to central Iraq despite considerable opposition at home, even within his Labour Party.
Scottish Nationalist Party spokesman Angus Robertson warned that the deaths would have "profound implications" for public opinion in Scotland, where the Black Watch regiment is recruited.
The deteriorating security situation prompted the humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres to announce it was closing its operations in Iraq. CARE International withdrew from the country after its national director, Margaret Hassan, was kidnapped last month.
Also on Thursday in Ramadi, an Army unit attached to the Marines discovered a youth center boobytrapped with bombs, with a wire leading to a local mosque.
At another mosque in Ramadi, they found more than two tonnes of explosives along with other devices, including rifles, artillery rounds and mortar rounds.
An Iraqi known for cooperating with Americans was killed near Ramadi, police said. The assailants stopped a car carrying Sheik Bezei Ftaykhan, ordered the driver to leave and pumped about 30 bullets into the sheik's body, police said.
Yesterday, Nepalese Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat confirmed a Nepalese man abducted by gunmen on Monday along with an American, a Filipino and three Iraqis had been freed by his captors in Baghdad.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘ONE BRIDGE’: The US president-elect met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 in Florida and the two discussed a potential Taiwan-China conflict’s implications for world peace US president-elect Donald Trump has described Taiwan as “a major issue for world peace” during a meeting with Akie Abe, the widow of late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted sources as saying in a report yesterday. Trump met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the two discussed the Russo-Ukrainian war and the situation in the Taiwan Strait. During the meeting, Trump spoke on the implications for world peace of a potential Taiwan-China conflict, which “indicated his administration’s stance of placing importance on dealing with the situation in
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
ALLIANCE: Washington continues to implement its policy of normalizing arms sales to Taiwan and helps enhance its defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US President Joe Biden on Friday agreed to provide US$571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said, while the US State Department approved the potential sale of US$265 million in military equipment. Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to US$571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement. However, it did not provide specific details about this latest package, which was the third of its kind to
RSS