NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov 6 (AFP) - US forces pounded Saturday suspected rebel targets around Iraq`s flashpoint city of Fallujah ahead of an anticipated offensive, while 20 US soldiers were wounded in action in neighbouring Ramadi.
In preparations for combat, US marines reassembled weapons, counted ammunition and loaded vehicles at their camps outside Fallujah, while inside the rebel enclave, insurgents said they had unified their military command.
As marines awaited the final go-ahead from Iraq`s Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Fallujah`s sister city of Ramadi was jolted once more by a daily dose of urban warfare between insurgents and US troops.
"Twenty soldiers assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were wounded in action today while conducting increased security operations in Ramadi," a military spokesman said.
The action followed a night of air raids over Fallujah, west of Baghdad, which rebels have transformed into their fiefdom since a marine assault on the city in April ended in stalemate.
Early morning strikes leveled a local hospital, its director said.
The newly-built Nazal general hospital, which was about to be inaugurated, was destroyed by two missiles, according to Doctor Ali Hayad.
Artillery fire also erupted in Fallujah at about 11:00 am (0800 GMT) after several mortar shells fell on Camp Fallujah, without inflicting any injuries, said an AFP photographer who is embedded with the US marines.
US artillery and rocket fire again hammered the area Saturday night, an AFP reporter witnessed, as part of the military`s sustained campaign to wipe out insurgent bunkers and strongholds ahead of a possible thrust into the city.
At least nine successive explosions reverberated around the city just after 0024 (2124 GMT).
Several thousand US troops have massed around the Sunni Muslim bastion since mid-October, while the US military is doubling its manpower in Ramadi to 2,000.
"We have got to clean Fallujah," said Colonel Michael Formica, commander of the US army`s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division, charged with sealing off the city.
"We have to stop the bad guys from escaping, we have to end terrorism and return Fallujah to the Iraqi people in collaboration with the Iraqi forces," he told AFP.
At least one battalion of an Iraqi intervention force, belonging to Iraq`s fledgling army and specifically trained for urban warfare, had arrived at the belt of marine bases surrounding Fallujah, a marine spokesman said.
Military officials believe that some 2,000-to-2,500 armed fighters are holed up in the Sunni Muslim bastion with another 10,000 men who might or might not fight.
The military has identified their public enemy number one in Fallujah as Omar Hadid, a local resident with a militia numbering between 1,000-1,500 people, many of them Syrian and Jordanian fighters. The military says Hadid has links to Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The insurgents are expected to use suicide bombers, car bombs, snipers and booby-trap devices to defend against any American assault, Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Malay told reporters.
If the offensive begins, Malay warned: "It`s going to be a nasty fight."
Many of Fallujah`s 300,000 inhabitants have already fled to makeshift camps to the west or sought refuge in Baghdad, and US planes have been dropping leaflets urging those remaining to leave.
Inside the city, insurgents released a statement Saturday, announcing they had formed a unified military command, with the proclamation signed by 11 groups including Zarqawi`s Unity and Holy War group.
The umbrella fighting organisation called its new leadership command "The General Command Of The Islamic Iraqi Armed Forces".
The statement, released by the Mujahadeen Shura Council, a religious body which has ruled Fallujah since April, vowed to take the fight to seven other provinces across Iraq if the Americans invaded the community.
Desperate to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, a delegation of four members of Iraq`s interim parliament had been talking to leaders from Fallujah, but hopes are fading fast as communication dries up.
"Things are getting worse," said one member of the team from the parliament.
Earlier discussions collapsed in mid-October after Allawi threatened to invade Fallujah if it did not surrender Iraq`s most wanted man, Zarqawi, and other suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants believed to use the city as an operating base.

11/06/2004 21:35 GMT - AFP