FALLUJAH, Nov 12: US-led troops claim controlling of most of Fallujah as they ran into pockets of fierce resistance on Friday while sporadic gunfire and blasts are heard in Baghdad outside of which a US helicopter is shot down and clashes are reported in Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq.

As the battle for Fallujah raged into its fifth day, officers announced that 22 US and five Iraqi troops have been killed along with about 600 militants. At least 178 American soldiers were reported to be wounded in the city.

While aid agencies pressed for access to Fallujah to take food and water to civilians trapped inside, an audio message from Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was posted on a Web site used by militants, which urged fighters in the Iraqi city to "resist" the US-led attacks, saying "victory" was certain.

On Friday, relatives of the Iraqi premier who were kidnapped earlier in the week were still missing. In Fallujah, just hours after US Marines said insurgents were penned in the south of the city, a battle erupted in its north-western parts, a Reuters correspondent with Marines in the area said.

Some troops swept quickly through Fallujah from north to south, seizing key positions such as mosques, schools and government buildings, while others followed with the perilous task of rooting out the rebels, who the marines say have become more desperate as their stronghold crumbles.

Planes were reported to have ferried at least 200 wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq to the main US military hospital in Germany on Thursday, joining 125 who arrived earlier in the week. -Agencies