US bombs kill four civilians in Fallujah

US aircraft bombed Fallujah yesterday as troops continued to battle insurgents accused of sheltering foreign militants led by America’s top enemy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The battles subsided at dusk after US forces pulled back from forward positions, witnesses said. Four civilians, including a child, were killed in the violence, hospital officials said. A child and a woman were among 12 wounded.

In Baghdad, a mortar round hit an arms collection depot in Sadr City, killing two Iraqi National Guards and a civilian, shortly before interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was due there.

Hospital staff said nine civilians were also wounded by the mortar round that hit the Sina’a Club football stadium or in shooting that erupted in the confusion afterwards.

Allawi hastily rearranged his schedule after receiving word of the attack on the stadium used to store arms collected from Shi’ite Muslim militiamen and other Iraqis in return for money.

But after a two-hour delay he met supporters of anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and tribal leaders in the stadium.

“I’ve just met with Sadr’s people. Things are moving in the right direction and arms are being surrendered to the Iraqi government,” he told reporters.

Iraq’s National Security Adviser Kassim Daoud announced that the disarmament scheme, which had been due to end Sunday, had been extended for another two days. He said the government was still ready for a peaceful solution in Fallujah.

The US-backed government is trying to disarm militias before January elections and build up fledgling Iraqi security forces, though they have lost hundreds in insurgent attacks.

In Sadr City, a US officer said Shi’ite militiamen have handed in few serviceable weapons under the cash-for-guns scheme meant to halt weeks of fighting with US forces there.

But Aqil al-Saffar, a senior Iraqi security official, said a large quantity of light, medium and heavy weapons had been collected in the past week and stored at the Defence Ministry.

The interim government hopes to restore its authority in Sadr City by peaceful means, but said last week Fallujah could expect military action unless it handed over Zarqawi’s group.

“We declare to all Iraqi people and especially those in Fallujah that the door is still open for any initiative to prevent a military solution,” Daoud said in a statement.

Prospects for this have receded since US forces detained the city’s chief negotiator Friday.

Fallujah has effectively been in insurgent hands since Washington called off a US assault on the city in April after fierce fighting and a high civilian death toll.

The government has sworn to retake Fallujah and other rebel strongholds to enable all Iraqis to vote in the elections. But any new offensive could cast a cloud over the polls.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s military prosecutor indicted 13 alleged Muslim militants yesterday, including fugitive Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, for an al Qaida linked plot to attack targets in the country with chemical and conventional weapons.

Lt Col Mahmoud Obeidat summoned the nine terror suspects who are in custody and read them the charges listed in the indictment, officials said.

The four at large, including al-Zarqawi, were also charged and, like the nine in detention, will be tried in absentia. A trial date has not been fixed, but it should begin in early to mid-November, the officials said.