US casualties as marines battle militants

US MARINES battled insurgents in Fallujah yesterday with warplanes dropping bombs and tanks shelling suspected guerrilla positions, causing deaths on both sides, as the first 200 residents returned to the battered city.

The fighting comes as the US military began re-examining security measures at bases across Iraq. On Wednesday, top Pentagon officials admitted that an attack that killed 22 people at a camp near Mosul was likely carried out by a suicide bomber who infiltrated the camp’s dining tent as soldiers ate lunch.

In Fallujah, US F-18 fighter-bombers were seen striking at targets in the city’s outskirts. Tank and artillery fire was also heard. Officials said US Marines were killed, but would not specify the number. Several insurgents were also killed.

Authorities had planned yesterday to allow the return of 2,000 residents - the first wave of tens of thousands who want to come back after being displaced by last month’s bloody US-led offensive to retake the rebel stronghold. But by the afternoon, only about 200 actually made the trip, some on foot.

Officials said the slow start was probably because people didn’t know they were allowed in. More were expected after weekly Muslim prayers yesterday.

“Most of them get their information from the mosques, so we think that tomorrow they’ll get the word out more,” said Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Hansen, Fallujah operations officer with the Marines’ 4th Civil Affairs unit.

US officials have hailed the military offensive to retake Fallujah in November as a major tactical victory, but many of the guerrillas are believed to have slipped out during the fighting and are said to be operating across central and northern Iraq, fuelling an increase in violence there.

The return of residents to the city - once with a population of 250,000 - is a key part of attempts to restore and rebuild Fallujah. But while US and Iraqi authorities organise the return, US troops have repeatedly clashed with pockets of resistance in the city.

In Mosul, Tuesday’s explosion - the deadliest single attack on a US base - raised questions about how the attacker infiltrated the compound, which is surrounded by blast walls and barbed wire and watched by US troops who search every person going in and check his identity.

A contingent of FBI bomb technicians has been deployed to help the military investigate the bombing, said an FBI official on condition of anonymity.