US finds 'al-Zarqawi command centre'

US troops sweeping through Fallujah found what appeared to be a command centre used by followers of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a general declared the battle for the city had “broken the back of the insurgency”.

A separate raid yesterday near the suspected command centre uncovered a bomb-making workshop where an SUV registered in Texas was being converted into a car bomb and a classroom with flight plans and instructions on shooting down planes, according to a CNN crew embedded with the US army.

Gun battles still flared in Fallujah as troops hunted rebels five days after the military said its forces had occupied the entire city, which lies 40 miles west of Baghdad. One US marine and one Iraqi soldier were killed, US officials said.

An estimated 1,200 militants have been killed in the Fallujah offensive, with about 1,025 enemy fighters detained, the US says.

At a base outside Fallujah, Lt Gen John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the US casualty toll stood at 51 dead and about 425 wounded.

Sattler said he felt the US-led attack on the city had dealt a serious blow to the uprising.

“We feel right now that we have, as I mentioned, broken the back of the insurgency. We’ve taken away this safe haven,” Sattler said, adding that rebels had scattered elsewhere in Iraq where they lacked the resources available in their former stronghold.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, said they arrested 104 suspected militants in a raid in Baghdad, including nine who had fled Fallujah.

However, fighters struck back elsewhere in volatile Sunni Muslim areas.

In Haditha, north west of Fallujah, militants blew up the mayor’s office and the police command centre with four thunderous explosions. Rebels distributed leaflets warning that anyone who “wears a police uniform or reports to a police station will be killed”.

Car bombs in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk killed at least four people, while mortar shells that exploded near the governor’s office in Mosul wounded four guards, officials said.

The governor of Diyala province north east of Baghdad escaped assassination when a bomb exploded near his convoy, injuring four bodyguards.

US officials insisted the Fallujah campaign had produced a treasure trove of documents and other intelligence information that would help US and Iraqi authorities hunt down rebels. Sattler said lists included names of fighters, including some from outside Iraq.

According to CNN’s footage, the suspected al-Zarqawi command centre was in an imposing house with concrete columns and a large sign in Arabic reading “al-Qaida Organisation” and “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”.

Al-Zarqawi’s group, al-Qaida in Iraq, is considered the deadliest terrorist network in the country, held responsible for a string of deadly car bombings and gruesome kidnappings and beheadings of foreign hostages, including Kenneth Bigley.

Inside the building, US soldiers found documents, old computers, notebooks, photographs and copies of the Koran. Several bodies also were found.

There were also two letters inside the house, one allegedly from al-Zarqawi giving instructions to two of his lieutenants. Another sought money and help from the terrorist leader.

Iraqi authorities have acknowledged that al-Zarqawi, along with other insurgent leaders, escaped from Fallujah. Al-Zarqawi is wanted by both Jordan and the United States, and Washington has offered a reward for information leading to his capture.