Militants resist US offensive near Fallujah: Nine policemen killed in ambush
FALLUJAH, Oct 17: US troops and militants battled on the edge of Fallujah on Sunday and nine policemen were killed in an ambush south of the capital
, as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he did not think last year's US-led invasion had made the world a safer place.
As violence soared, two US soldiers were killed on Saturday night when two helicopters crashed, bringing the US death toll to six over the weekend.
A mortar attack killed two Iraqis outside a stadium in Baghdad's Sadr City where people were lining up to sell back their weapons to police on the final day of a week-long initiative to disarm clerics of Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army.
Britain made an impassioned plea to Iraqis for information on the whereabouts of the body of British hostage Kenneth Bigley, still missing more than a week after he was beheaded by supporters of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
Speaking in Arabic, Britain's ambassador to Iraq, Edward Chaplin, urged anyone who knew anything about the killing to report it to the embassy in Baghdad.
In a television interview, Annan said that the world was a less safe place since last year's US-led invasion. "I cannot say the world is safer when you consider the violence around us, when you look around you and see the terrorist attacks around the world and you see what is going on in Iraq," he said in an interview with Britain's ITV channel.
On the ground, insurgents and US forces traded fire and warplanes pounded positions on the edge of Fallujah as a major operation by the Americans to flush out Zarqawi carried on into its fourth day.
"There have been direct clashes between the Americans and insurgents in Jolan. US loudspeakers blared 'Come out and face us you cowards'," one man said who fled the city amid the escalating violence.
American F-16 fighters roared overhead and more families had fled amid fears of a US ground assault, said the man who joined the exodus out of Fallujah, asking not to be named.
Marines were hit by small arms and sniper fire, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and riposted with tank and artillery fire and called in seven air strikes, a military statement read.
Fighters hid in a mosque for cover, it added. "We're taking fire from inside the city and we're on the outskirts," Marine Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert told AFP.
More than 1,000 US troops and Iraqi forces ringed the city as the Iraqi government called on residents to throw out the insurgents who have turned the area into their main operating base.
"We call on the tribes of Fallujah to hunt down the terrorists and the foreigners immediately and to rid the city of these murderers," National Security Advisor Kassem Daoud said.
The tough words came the day after some Fallujah leaders announced their desire to resume dialogue on condition the US air strikes stop and that a key negotiator, Sheikh Khaled Hamoud, be released by the Americans.
The team severed dialogue with the Iraqi government Thursday as air raids were stepped up and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned that Fallujah must surrender Zarqawi or face invasion.
Fallujah's province of Al-Anbar was rife with violence as the city hall in Rutba, near the Jordanian border, was dynamited by rebels and police reported a US humvee was ablaze following a rocket attack between Fallujah and Ramadi.-AFP
