A senior Iraqi military commander has said it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities.

Last week, I had the dubious honour of engaging with a Cork-based ambulance crew.

FAR be it for me to comment on the Northern Ireland situation. My understanding of the matter comes in the form of music and some movies — similar to some Irish basing their vision of America on John Wayne and the sort.

I DO not share Maurice O’Connell’s historically and politically flawed analysis (Letters, September 22) that the inability of British and Irish Lisbon ‘no-noes’ to understand the European project is due in part to the fact that they did not share, “even in a grandfather’s memories”, the types of atrocities experienced in Europe, including Auschwitz, the Katyn Woods, Lidice, or Oradour — the French town destroyed (by mistake?) by the Nazis, or jails in Franco’s Spain or the Colonels’ Greece.

Five more US troops killed in Iraq yesterday made 2007 the deadliest year yet for American forces.

Nine Iraqi civilians were killed and 15 wounded when several mortar rounds missed their target in Fallujah today.

More US troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months – at least 334 through January 31 – than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an analysis of casualty records.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S chief lawyer yesterday said that the deposed Iraqi president wanted British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer today said that the deposed Iraqi president wanted British prime minister Tony Blair and US president George Bush tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

PENTAGON officials say white phosphorous was used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November, but deny reports that the chemical weapon was used against civilians.

The US military said it planned to expand its prisons across Iraq to hold as many as 16,000 detainees, as the relentless insurgency showed no sign of relenting one year after the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqi authorities.

Using car bombs and a man with explosives strapped to his body, insurgents killed more than 60 people in three Iraqi cities today, police said.

A speaker believed to be the al-Qaida leader in Iraq said in an audiotape found today on a website that one of his top lieutenants was killed in last year’s US-led assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

US Marines battled rebels in Fallujah today in heavy fighting that erupted as the first residents were returning to the devastated city.

Film legend Harrison Ford has agreed to star in Hollywood's first movie about November's second Iraq conflict, The Battle of Fallujah.

A suicide bomber killed 13 people in an attack today next to the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad housing the interim government and US embassy, while eight US Marines died in combat in western Iraq.

A LIEUTENANT of Iraq's most feared militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was captured a few days ago in Mosul.

Five thousand US marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched a new offensive in the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad today.

Rebels reeling from the loss of their base in Fallujah struck back with car bombings and a rocket attack on Baghdad’s Green Zone as a US official admitted that security in some areas was deteriorating so badly “it would now be difficult” to hold elections there.

Commanders in Iraq will probably increase their troops by several thousand as the January election approaches, the number two commander of US forces in the Middle East said.

IRAQI forces backed by American soldiers, stormed one of the major Sunni Muslim mosques in Baghdad after Friday prayers, opening fire and killing at least three people, witnesses said.

US troops sweeping through Fallujah found what appeared to be a command centre used by followers of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a general declared the battle for the city had “broken the back of the insurgency”.

US forces shelled rebel holdouts in Fallujah and 13 people were killed in deadly attacks elsewhere in Iraq, as a report by marine intelligence warned the insurgency would grow.

YESTERDAY’s Book of Estimates, as an indicator of what could eventually emerge from this neo-socialist Government’s Budget, must come as a great relief to the Progressive Democrats.

An American Marine and an Iraqi soldier died in Fallujah today when they came under fire from rebel gunmen hiding in a house.

AS one of the few English-speaking media outlets not operating in a country involved in the invasion of Iraq, the Irish Examiner should consider John Pilger’s recent assessment of the media’s culpability in ‘normalising the unthinkable’.

US and Iraqi troops recaptured police stations and secured bridges in the northern city of Mosul in an offensive aimed at pushing out fighters supporting the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.

FIERCE battles between insurgents and US and Iraqi forces killed at least 16 people yesterday in the latest in a wave of clashes that has swept Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.

Insurgents stormed two police stations today in the strife-ridden city of Mosul, killing at least six Iraqi troops

A US general said today that 31 American troops and six Iraqi soldiers have been killed so far in the battle to retake the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

US FORCES said yesterday that 600 insurgents had been killed in their ongoing assault on the city of Fallujah, but acknowledged success in the city won't break Iraq's insurgency.

American and Iraqi troops, backed by warplanes and artillery, were today squeezing Sunni fighters into a smaller and smaller corner in Fallujah where about 600 rebels have been killed in the offensive.

GUNMEN abducted three members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's family from their Baghdad home and threatened yesterday that they would be beheaded in two days if the siege of Fallujah was not lifted.

The US military said three troops had been killed and another 14 wounded in and around Fallujah during the past 12 hours.

American forces thrust into the heart of the rebel stronghold of Fallujah today, fighting fierce street battles not seen since the Vietnam war and conducting house-to-house searches on the second day of a major assault to recapture the Iraqi city.

THOUSANDS of American troops, backed by armour and a heavy air barrage, punched their way into Fallujah last night, kicking off a massive assault dubbed Operation Phantom Fury that seeks to put an end to six months of insurgent control of the Iraqi city.

US TROOPS urged civilians to flee Fallujah yesterday and launched air strikes on the rebel city ahead of an assault seen as critical to attempts to pacify Iraq before January elections.

US troops pounded the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah with airstrikes and tank fire, and the Iraqi government appealed to residents to expel ”foreign terrorists” to prevent an all-out attack.

U.S.-led forces unleashed a strike today against a building on the outskirts of rebel-held Fallujah believed to be used for insurgents training, the military said in a statement.

US aircraft blasted the rebel stronghold of Fallujah three times in 24 hours over the weekend in a concerted effort to hit militants loyal to guerrilla chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

US FORCES launched air strikes on Fallujah yesterday, targeting what they said was a meeting of key loyalists of their top foe in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

US warplanes struck an alleged hide-out where operatives from an al Qaida-linked group had gathered today killing at least 20 people.

A massive suicide car bomb blast on the outskirts of of the Iraqi city of Fallujah today killed seven US marines in the deadliest attack on Americans since May.