International

U.S. preparing for assault on Fallujah

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, NOV. 2. American fighter jets have bombed Fallujah amid fears that U.S. plans to storm the defiant Iraqi city are in their final stages.

The bombing on a neighbourhood, northeast of the city lasted for nearly two hours. Residents said the U.S. air strike also destroyed a house in the in the Al-Askari district.

Showdown near

The U.S. has defended its aerial bombardment on the grounds that the city had emerged as the base for "foreign fighters", including the Jordan-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Mr. Al-Zarqawi has been accused of masterminding a spate of car bombings and kidnappings in Iraq.

A military showdown appeared near as both the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, and an umbrella group of Islamic scholars in Fallujah have issued statements, indicating their unwillingness to back off. Referring to the Fallujah situation, Mr. Allawi said, "Our patience is running thin". "There will be no peaceful solution with Zarqawi's people, Saddam's people, Bin Laden's people", he said.

Talks between representatives of the interim Government and Fallujah delegates had earlier collapsed in mid-October.

A representative of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), Iraq's highest Sunni religious authority, on Saturday said the negotiations had been a mere eyewash. "The Americans will invade Fallujah and negotiations were a mere U.S. plan to win more time to complete military preparations," the AMS spokesman Mohammed Bashar Al-Faydhi said.

He accused members of the Iraqi Government of "intentionally or unintentionally helping the Americans realise this goal."

Warning against attack

Mr. Al-Faydi warned that an American assault on the city would spiral tensions in the war-torn country and "break loose the doors of hell." "Attacking Fallujah would trigger a crisis in the city. The Government should realise that such attacks would not stop terrorism as they claim."

He stressed that the recent U.S. attacks on Samarra and Tal Afar had not stopped the unabated resistance against the U.S. occupation forces.

Reports from inside Fallujah say that civilians were deserting the city in hordes, fearing a U.S. attack.

A senior American military spokesman on Friday admitted that the city's population of 300,000 had gone down to around 50,000 to 60,000.

Some of the people fleeing to Baghdad said that the Americans, who had besieged the city since October 14, were allowing people to leave Fallujah in order to corner the guerillas.

With a U.S. assault in sight, the Fallujah Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella of resistance groups, was reportedly administering the city.

Fighters stocking up

The guerillas were reinforcing their positions and stockpiling food and water supplies.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops have been apparently beefed up with fresh arrivals, while some British troops in the south were moved towards central Iraq.

In related developments, armed assailants killed the Deputy Governor of Baghdad, Hatim Kamil, and wounded four of his bodyguards.

The assassination is the latest in a series of attacks targeting officials linked to the interim Government.

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