US Military Delays Falluja Street Patrols

Three days of fierce fighting following the collapse of a fragile ceasefire in Falluja have forced the US military to delay its plans to introduce street patrols in the city today.

Marine Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne announced that joint US-Iraqi patrols into the city would be delayed by a day, and were now scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Lt Col Byrne said that, when the patrols begin, "we expect hostile fire. There is a cadre of bad guys that are still in Falluja, and any time people go into Falluja, they get fired at".

Local police chief Sabar al-Janabi told Reuters that, with with US and ex-Iraqi army officers, he was taking part in fresh talks on plans for the joint patrols.

Civilian casualties and images of desperate residents fleeing the relentless onslaught of artillery and air raids have increased pressure on military commanders to calm the situation and avoid an all-out offensive against the besieged city.

"Violent military action by an occupying power against inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse," the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, warned yesterday. "It's definitely time now for those who prefer restraint and dialogue to make their voices heard."

Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi governing council, has also called for a halt to attacks on Falluja. He said that if the US refused to stop its offensive, his Iraqi Islamic party would consider withdrawing from the council.

US warplanes yesterday dropped laser-guided bombs on guerrilla targets as battles broke out in several parts of the city, including areas that had previously been relatively quiet.

Witnesses reported that at least 25 buildings had been destroyed. At least 10 people were injured in the fighting, hospital officials said today.

One Falluja resident, Hassan al-Maadhidi, returned to the city after fleeing earlier fighting, and said he was distraught when he saw the devastation wrought by the latest onslaught.

"I returned to see houses destroyed, streets empty and shops bombarded," he told the Associated Press, adding that he was considering fleeing the city again. However, US military leaders insisted the strikes had been limited, targeting only insurgents. US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said: "Even though it may not look like it, there is still a determined aspiration on the part of the coalition to maintain a ceasefire and solve the situation in Falluja by peaceful means."

Today, in a sign that the military may be heeding the calls for it to scale down its offensive, there was no immediate resumption of the shellfire and air strikes that have shaken Falluja, which is 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, for the last three days.

An Associated Press reporter said marines in Falluja had begun packing up gear and loading heavy trucks, saying they had been ordered to leave the southern industrial zone and pull away from the city.

It was not immediately known whether the move represented a withdrawal of marines from their siege of the city, or other marine forces were being rotated in to replace the withdrawing 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

Elsewhere, a US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, and a foreign civilian was shot and killed in an attack on his car in the southern city of Basra. Three members of an Iraqi family were killed when a rocket hit a residential building in the northern city of Beiji.