US bombs pound rebel city, British hostage reportedly killed

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US planes targeted a suspected militant hideout in Iraq's rebel city of Fallujah where medics said a wedding party was hit and 12 people were killed, amid unconfirmed reports that British hostage Kenneth Bigley had been killed.
In what has become a near-nightly pounding, the US military said it struck a building in a northern district of the city, west of Baghdad, before dawn in the hunt for supporters of the country's most wanted man Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, also believed to have been holding Bigley captive.
The Jordanian militant's Unity and Holy War group is blamed for a string of deadly car bombings and beheadings of hostages that have helped to cast doubt over whether nationwide elections can be carried out in January 2005 as planned.
The British embassy in Iraq said it was trying urgently to confirm or deny reports that Bigley, a British engineer kidnapped in Baghdad last month, was dead.
"We are trying urgently to corroborate reports that Kenneth Bigley has been killed," said embassy spokeswoman Victoria Whitford, adding that there had been no confirmation yet.
Britain's Sky News television reported earlier that the 62-year-old engineer was dead, quoting sources in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office.
Bigley, 62, was kidnapped in the Iraqi capital on September 16 along with two US colleagues who have since been beheaded by their captors.
At Fallujah's general hospital, Dr Ali Hayad counted 12 dead and 16 wounded, including nine females, as people pulled bodies from the rubble of a house hit in the attack where -- he said -- a wedding party had been taking place, with the bride one of the wounded.
The US military, for which this Sunni Muslim bastion has since April become a no-go zone for its ground troops, offered no information on casualties.
"This strike contributed to reducing the capability of the Zarqawi network and increasing safety and security throughout Iraq," it said in a statement.
US and Iraqi troops also pressed on with an assault on pockets of insurgency south of Baghdad.
Some 2,000 US and Iraqi forces were combing the belt of farming towns -- Mahmudiyah, Latifiyah and Iskandariyah -- known as the triangle of death, where insurgents have been killing and kidnapping foreigners and locals alike.
At least two rebels have been killed, an unknown number wounded and nearly 60 suspected insurgents detained since Tuesday, a US military spokesman said.
"Eight coalition forces, marines and soldiers, have been wounded," he added.
The offensive came just days after US and Iraqi trooops wrested contol of the city of Samarra from rebel hands in their largest joint operation to date.
The New York Times said other hotspots were being targeted.
Citing unnamed senior officials, it said US military planners had identified 20 to 30 towns and cities in Iraq that must be brought under control before nationwide elections can be held in January.
The interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said it is in contact with representatives from rebel strongholds such as Fallujah and the Shiite Baghdad slum of Sadr City, while maintaining that the military option was the last resort.
Hinting at a peaceful resolution to a stand-off between the authorities and Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, the militia on Thursday offered to give up large- and medium-sized weapons in return for the release of prisoners and a role in Iraq's US-backed political process.
Iraq's national security adviser Qasim Dawood welcomed the gesture but offered no indication whether the government would comply with the demands.
"This initiative is being presented only to the Iraqi government," rather than the US-led multinational forces with which Sadr's militia has been battling, Sheikh Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, an official from the cleric's office, stressed.
Challenging the peace process, an Iraqi police officer was shot dead and two others wounded Friday when their patrol came under attack near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, while two US soldiers were injured in a roadside bombing.
In addition, US forces and Iraqi police were trying to identify a body found shot dead near to Kirkuk and a US missile killed three men who an American officer said were planting a bomb in Sadr City.
Following his criticism this week of the military planning behind the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the former US governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, on Friday gave a public endorsement of President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq.
But he refused to back down from a view that the United States did not have enough troops in Iraq, particularly at the initial stage of the occupation.
"The president was right when he concluded that (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein was a menace who needed to be removed from power," Bremer wrote in the New York Times.
Meanwhile in Kuala Lumpur, Iraq urged Muslim investors to help the country regain stability by investing in the economy, but Islamic businessmen expressed reluctance to risk any money until the security situation improves.