US pounds Fallujah, Australia says 'no more troops'

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.

Separately, the most feared militant group in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid and Jihad, said in an internet statement that it would take orders from Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida from now on.