By LOURDES NAVARRO, Associated Press Writer
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Hundreds of reinforcements joined Marines besieging Fallujah on Saturday, and the military said it would move to take the entire city if negotiations fail. Fighting raged through the center of the country, killing 40 Iraqis and an American airman
Gunfire crackled in Fallujah even as Iraqi government negotiators met with city leaders, trying to persuade them to hand over militants who killed and mutilated four Americans in the city March 31.
Nearly 60,000 Fallujah residents — about a third of the population — have streamed out of the city over the past two days, a Marine commander said.
Militants struck a U.S. air base with mortars in Balad, north of Baghdad, killing the airman. Other fighters attacked government buildings and police stations in Baqouba, setting off firefights in which about 40 Iraqis were killed. Several U.S. troops were wounded, said Capt. Issam Bornales, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.
Insurgents also fought U.S. troops in Baghdad's northern, mainly Sunni neighborhood of al-Azamiyah.
Masked gunmen played havoc on the road between Baghdad and Fallujah, a key supply route, rocketing a second fuel convoy in the area in as many days. Nearby, guerrillas hit a U.S. tank with an rocket-propelled grenade, setting it ablaze.
Militants threatened to kill and mutilate Thomas Hamill, an American civilian captured Friday during another convoy ambush in the same area — the latest in a series of kidnappings in Iraq (news - web sites). They demanded troops withdraw from Fallujah.
"Our only demand is to remove the siege from the city of mosques," a spokesman said in a videotape given to the Al-Jazeera television network. Hamill was shown in front of an Iraqi flag.
"If you don't respond within 12 hours ... he will be treated worse than those who were killed and burned in Fallujah."
Four American civilian workers were killed, burned to death, mutilated and hanged from the Euphrates River bridg in Fallujah last week.
Two U.S. servicemembers and several contract employees were still unaccounted for from attacks on Friday, a Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman, Lt. Commander Dan Hetlage, said Saturday.
Militants continued to hold hostage two aid workers — a Canadian and an Arab from Jerusalem — but announced they would free three Japanese civilians.
The kidnappers of the Japanese, identifying themselves as the "Muhahedeen Squadron," said they made the decision after mediation by the Islamic Clerics Committee, a Sunni organization, Al-Jazeera reported.
In a statement, the kidnappers urged the Japanese public to press their government to withdraw its troops from Iraq, the station said.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt called on Fallujah's insurgents to join a bilateral cease-fire. But he said a third battalion of Marines had moved to the city — joining two battalions totaling 1,200 troops and a battalion of Iraqi security forces already in place.
Kimmitt warned that if talks between city leaders and members of the Iraqi Governing Council did not produce results, the military would consider renewing its assault on Fallujah. Marine commanders in Fallujah were skeptical the talks would succeed.
"The prospect of some city father walking in and making 'Joe Jihadi' give himself up are pretty slim," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Batallion, 5th Marine Regiment.
"What is coming is the destruction of anti-coalition forces in Fallujah ... they have two choices: Submit or die," he told reporters.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard Saturday in the city. Kimmitt said Marines were respecting a unilateral halt in offensive operations called Friday but said gunmen continued to fire on troops, who were responding. Byrne said the new battalion pushed a small distance into the northeast corner of the city before stopping to allow the council delegation to enter.
"Were we not at this point observing suspension of offensive operations ... it could well have been that we would have had the entire the city by this point," Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.
In the north of the country, the head of the Iraqi Red Crescent's Irbil office, Barzan Umer Mantik, and his wife were attacked and killed Saturday in their car in the nearby city of Mosul, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The German Foreign Ministry said two security agents from its embassy in Baghdad have been missing for several days. It gave no further details, but Germany's ZDF and ARD television reported that the missing were two Germans, 38 and 25 years old, who were ambushed Wednesday while on a routine trip from Amman, Jordan, to Baghdad.
ARD said the two were agents with GSG-9, a counterterrorism unit trained in freeing hostages and other commando missions.
In the south Saturday, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr remained in control of Karbala and nearby Najaf and Kufa.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are in Karbala and other Shiite cities to mark al-Arbaeen, the end of the mourning period for a 7th-century martyred Shiite saint. Ceremonies are to be held until Sunday night.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, meanwhile, made a surprise visit to Italian troops in the southern city of Nasiriyah, which saw fighting with al-Sadr followers earlier in the week but has largely become quiet in the meantime.
"I bring you the embrace of the Italians," he told the troops. "Your actions are in support of peace, for the fight against terrorism, and in defense of democracy."
The U.S. military's death toll from the week of fighting across the country stood at 47. The fighting has killed more than 500 Iraqis — including more than 280 in Fallujah, a hospital official said. At least 648 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
In other violence Saturday:
_ Gunmen attacked a checkpoint of Iraqi security forces near the northern city of Kirkuk, killing two Iraqi security members, said the head of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps in the city. The attackers kidnapped three other ICDC members, said Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin.
_ A member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ahmed al-Barak, was attacked while travelling from Hilla to Baghdad. He escaped unharmed but three bodyguards were wounded, a council spokesman said.
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FALLUJAH, Iraq - Hundreds of reinforcements joined Marines besieging Fallujah on Saturday, and the military said it would move to take the entire city if negotiations fail. Fighting raged through the center of the country, killing 40 Iraqis and an American airman
Gunfire crackled in Fallujah even as Iraqi government negotiators met with city leaders, trying to persuade them to hand over militants who killed and mutilated four Americans in the city March 31.
Nearly 60,000 Fallujah residents — about a third of the population — have streamed out of the city over the past two days, a Marine commander said.
Militants struck a U.S. air base with mortars in Balad, north of Baghdad, killing the airman. Other fighters attacked government buildings and police stations in Baqouba, setting off firefights in which about 40 Iraqis were killed. Several U.S. troops were wounded, said Capt. Issam Bornales, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.
Insurgents also fought U.S. troops in Baghdad's northern, mainly Sunni neighborhood of al-Azamiyah.
Masked gunmen played havoc on the road between Baghdad and Fallujah, a key supply route, rocketing a second fuel convoy in the area in as many days. Nearby, guerrillas hit a U.S. tank with an rocket-propelled grenade, setting it ablaze.
Militants threatened to kill and mutilate Thomas Hamill, an American civilian captured Friday during another convoy ambush in the same area — the latest in a series of kidnappings in Iraq (news - web sites). They demanded troops withdraw from Fallujah.
"Our only demand is to remove the siege from the city of mosques," a spokesman said in a videotape given to the Al-Jazeera television network. Hamill was shown in front of an Iraqi flag.
"If you don't respond within 12 hours ... he will be treated worse than those who were killed and burned in Fallujah."
Four American civilian workers were killed, burned to death, mutilated and hanged from the Euphrates River bridg in Fallujah last week.
Two U.S. servicemembers and several contract employees were still unaccounted for from attacks on Friday, a Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman, Lt. Commander Dan Hetlage, said Saturday.
Militants continued to hold hostage two aid workers — a Canadian and an Arab from Jerusalem — but announced they would free three Japanese civilians.
The kidnappers of the Japanese, identifying themselves as the "Muhahedeen Squadron," said they made the decision after mediation by the Islamic Clerics Committee, a Sunni organization, Al-Jazeera reported.
In a statement, the kidnappers urged the Japanese public to press their government to withdraw its troops from Iraq, the station said.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt called on Fallujah's insurgents to join a bilateral cease-fire. But he said a third battalion of Marines had moved to the city — joining two battalions totaling 1,200 troops and a battalion of Iraqi security forces already in place.
Kimmitt warned that if talks between city leaders and members of the Iraqi Governing Council did not produce results, the military would consider renewing its assault on Fallujah. Marine commanders in Fallujah were skeptical the talks would succeed.
"The prospect of some city father walking in and making 'Joe Jihadi' give himself up are pretty slim," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Batallion, 5th Marine Regiment.
"What is coming is the destruction of anti-coalition forces in Fallujah ... they have two choices: Submit or die," he told reporters.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard Saturday in the city. Kimmitt said Marines were respecting a unilateral halt in offensive operations called Friday but said gunmen continued to fire on troops, who were responding. Byrne said the new battalion pushed a small distance into the northeast corner of the city before stopping to allow the council delegation to enter.
"Were we not at this point observing suspension of offensive operations ... it could well have been that we would have had the entire the city by this point," Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.
In the north of the country, the head of the Iraqi Red Crescent's Irbil office, Barzan Umer Mantik, and his wife were attacked and killed Saturday in their car in the nearby city of Mosul, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The German Foreign Ministry said two security agents from its embassy in Baghdad have been missing for several days. It gave no further details, but Germany's ZDF and ARD television reported that the missing were two Germans, 38 and 25 years old, who were ambushed Wednesday while on a routine trip from Amman, Jordan, to Baghdad.
ARD said the two were agents with GSG-9, a counterterrorism unit trained in freeing hostages and other commando missions.
In the south Saturday, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr remained in control of Karbala and nearby Najaf and Kufa.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are in Karbala and other Shiite cities to mark al-Arbaeen, the end of the mourning period for a 7th-century martyred Shiite saint. Ceremonies are to be held until Sunday night.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, meanwhile, made a surprise visit to Italian troops in the southern city of Nasiriyah, which saw fighting with al-Sadr followers earlier in the week but has largely become quiet in the meantime.
"I bring you the embrace of the Italians," he told the troops. "Your actions are in support of peace, for the fight against terrorism, and in defense of democracy."
The U.S. military's death toll from the week of fighting across the country stood at 47. The fighting has killed more than 500 Iraqis — including more than 280 in Fallujah, a hospital official said. At least 648 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
In other violence Saturday:
_ Gunmen attacked a checkpoint of Iraqi security forces near the northern city of Kirkuk, killing two Iraqi security members, said the head of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps in the city. The attackers kidnapped three other ICDC members, said Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin.
_ A member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ahmed al-Barak, was attacked while travelling from Hilla to Baghdad. He escaped unharmed but three bodyguards were wounded, a council spokesman said.
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