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

Iraqi officials struggled today to clear up confusion over whether the most wanted member of Saddam Hussein’s ousted dictatorship had been captured in a shoot-out north of Baghdad.

The government of Iraq has accepted the peace deal brokered by Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani to end the occupation of the holy Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf.

Iraqi forces could begin an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr within hours, despite the firebrand cleric’s acceptance of a cease-fire proposal, an Iraqi Cabinet minister said today.