FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US forces pounded the insurgent-held city of Fallujah killing seven people, a day after a joint push with Iraqi forces on the opposition stronghold of Samarra left about 100 people dead.
The US airforce carried out another of its almost daily strikes on what the military says are suspected hideouts of foe Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi`s network in the Fallujah area, killing at least seven people and wounding 13, a medical source said.
A Fallujah doctor said women and children were among the victims. The US military says its raids on Fallujah are "precision hits" and questions the hospital casualty counts coming from the city.
Meanwhile, a relative calm descended on Samarra a day after a massive force of 3,000 US troops and 2,000 Iraqi auxiliaries stormed the city, a key bastion in the Sunni insurgent belt north of Baghdad.
The central Motasem neighbourhood was deserted Saturday morning as snipers posted on rooftops prevented residents and journalists from venturing into the streets.
An AFP reporter said Friday`s intense fighting had deprived Samarra of water and electricity.
Iraq`s National Security Advisor Qassim Daoud claimed Iraqi and US forces entered the city at the request of Samarra`s residents and vowed the operations would continue until the area is "cleansed of terrorists, criminals and former regime elements."
The first major push to reclaim insurgent-infested areas in the run-up to January elections, was also the most significant military operation in Iraq since an unsuccessful US onslaught on Fallujah in April.
The Samarra offensive marked a bloody start to the new month after devastating Baghdad car bombs killed at least 34 children on Thursday and brought the death toll for September to at least 575, making it one of the bloodiest months since the fall of Saddam Hussein`s regime in April 2003.
A US military statement said 109 rebels and one US soldier were killed in Friday`s assault on Samarra. Local hospitals reported 90 killed and 180 wounded.
The military also reported a US soldier was killed in the Baghdad area overnight but provided no details. Clashes were heard in the restive Haifa street district late Friday.
Unable to respond directly to the formidable military might of the coalition, insurgents have increasingly resorted to hostage-taking in recent months to wreak chaos in Iraq and eclipse progress by the interim Iraqi government.
A group which has detained two French reporters for six weeks demanded in a video broadcast on Saturday by Al-Jazeera television that Jakarta release a cleric suspected of links with Al-Qaeda, in exchange for two Indonesian women it kidnapped.
The Islamic Army in Iraq said "the Indonesian government arrested Abu Bakar Bashir to please the Australian government".
According to a previous video, the two Indonesians, identified in Jakarta as Rosidah binti Anom and Rafikan binti Amin, were among a group of 10 hostages which included two Lebanese and six Iraqis. All work for a British electronics company contracted by the coalition forces.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who leads the world`s largest Muslim country which has been a consistent critic of the US invasion of Iraq, appealed for the release of the women in a broadcast on Saturday on Al-Jazeera.
"In my name and that of the Indonesian republic and government, I strongly urge the kidnappers to release our two abducted citizens and return them safe to their families," she said on Qatar`s Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
There was no mention of the demand to release Bashir in her brief message.
Bashir is thought to be the mastermind of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, which is suspected of having carried out the deadly bombing in Bali in October 2002 in which 202 people were killed.
Confusion still surrounded the fate of French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot after the failure on Friday of an independent operation aimed at freeing the pair.
And there was still no word on Kenneth Bigley, a 62-year-old British engineer who has been held for two weeks by Zarqawi`s network and whose two US colleagues have already been decapitated.
Some 100,000 leaflets containing an appeal from his family were handed out at Friday prayers in Baghdad mosques, in the latest desperate bid to obtain his release.