BAGHDAD, April 8: Thousands of Sunnis and Shias forced their way through US military checkpoints to ferry food and medical supplies to the besieged Fallujah , where US marines are trying to crush an uprising.

Troops in armoured vehicles tried to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the town located 50kms west of here. But the US forces were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops.

Some 20kms west of Baghdad, a US patrol was attacked just moments before the Iraqi marchers arrived, and armed men could be seen dancing around on two blazing military vehicles. Two US Humvees tried to stop the marchers but were forced to drive off as residents joined the marchers, shouting "Allahu Akbar".

US troops armed with machineguns and backed up by armour again blocked the highway further west, but were forced to let the Iraqis past as they came under a hail of stones.

The cross-community demonstration of support for Fallujah had been organized by both Sunni and Shia leaders amid reports that the death toll in the town had reached 105 since Tuesday evening.

The rare display of sectarian unity came after Shia radicals launched an uprising in cities across central and southern Iraq, shattering a year of relative tolerance of the occupation from the community.

"No Sunnis, no Shias, yes for Islamic unity," the marchers chanted. "We are Sunni and Shia brothers and will never sell our country." At a press conference in Baghdad, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, faced tough questioning about the mounting civilian casualties in Fallujah and allegations that US marines were blocking delivery of humanitarian aid.

"We are not cutting off humanitarian aid to the people of Fallujah," he said. "We are working multiple initiatives (for aid delivery) that have to be coordinated with the commander of the ground." The marchers set off from the Um al Qora mosque in Baghdad, where wellwishers donated food, drinks and medicine.

They carried portraits of Moqtada Sadr, as well as pictures of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Hamas who was assassinated in an Israeli air raid last month. "Our families in Fallujah, remember that our dead go to heaven and theirs to hell," read a banner held aloft by the crowd.

Mosque imam Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Ghafur al Samarrai said the occupation forces had given the Iraqi Red Crescent permission to organize a relief convoy but made no secret of his hostility to the US offensive.

"The Iraqi Red Crescent got permission from the coalition, following negotiations over one day and one night to bring these supplies into the city," Sheikh Samarrai said.

"We want to express solidarity with our brothers who are being bombed by warplanes and tanks. "It is a form of jihad which can also come in the form of demonstrations, donations and fighting. The people who are occupied have the right to fight occupation, whatever the means they use." -AFP

Mosques