Fierce fighting puts Fallujah deal in doubt

FIERCE fighting in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah yesterday killed one American soldier and eight insurgents, casting doubt on a deal Americans had hoped would end one of their biggest problems in Iraq.

And two days after three suicide boats exploded in an attempt to bomb the key offshore oil export terminal near Basra, killing three Americans, al-Qaida operative Abu Musab Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack.

"We give you good tidings ... your brothers with their boats targetted oil tankers in Mina al-Amiq and Mina al-Bakr," said the statement signed by Zarqawi.

With the clock ticking down to a planned handover of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30, spiralling violence and kidnappings have shaken the coalition and undermined Iraq's reconstruction efforts.

Al-Arabiya TV broadcast a tape it said showed three Italians held captive in Iraq, with a message from their captors, who threatened to kill them if the Italian people did not protest their country's military presence in Iraq.

"We grant you five days after which we will kill them without any hesitation or any other warning," said the unidentified group's statement.

The thorniest military dilemmas involve anti-US fighters from the country's two main religious groups - minority Sunni Muslims in Fallujah and Shi'ites in the holy city of Najaf.

A deal was struck on Sunday with civic leaders in Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, aimed at putting joint patrols of US marines and Iraqi police on the streets today, when an offer to insurgents to lay down their weapons expires.

Local people were deeply skeptical, however.

"I expect the US and Iraqi forces to be exposed targets for the resistance. No one can control the feelings of the sons of Fallujah because they are very angry," said one local man, Abdul Hakim Shaker.

The battle, that broke out shortly before noon yesterday, seemed to bear out those fears.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference the fighting started when insurgents fired at marines from a mosque that had been raided earlier by the marines. He said marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and damaging the mosque. One US soldier died and eight were wounded.

After marines replied with heavy machine guns, jets and Cobra attack helicopters flew overhead.

An American reporter in Fallujah quoted a marine officer as saying guerrillas had forced them to retreat from two buildings after making them "fight for their lives".

In Najaf, the other main centre of confrontation, 200 US troops entered the holy city, despite a plea from Iraq's senior Shi'ite cleric not to. They said, however, it was not an offensive, but to cover the withdrawal of Spanish troops.