FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Fighting raged in the west of Fallujah after US and Iraqi troops seized a hospital and two bridges and US warplanes pounded the rebel city amid mounting expectations of an all-out assault.
The action came one day after Iraq`s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi declared a 60-day state of emergency across most of the country in a bid to control an escalating insurgency ahead of elections promised by January.
Outgunned but still fighting, insurgents blew up a car bomb in the path of US a convoy in the northern city of Mosul, wounding one soldier, while another car bomb ripped through Fallujah`s neighbouring city of Ramadi, killing four Iraqi civilians.
Allawi was due on Monday to give details about the emergency law, which gives his US-backed government sweeping powers to restore order.
In the first major step to reclaim Fallujah, several hundred Iraqi troops stormed the main hospital on the western edge of the city, while US marines took control of two bridges in a pre-dawn offensive.
But as they tried to secure their positions, rebel fighters fought back with rocket propelled grenades, small arms and mortar fire, a pool reporter embedded with the troops said.
US marines and Iraqi special forces responded using combat helipcopters, warplanes and ground fire.
The hospital has so far sustained minimal damage in about five hours of clashes and there were no apparent US casualties but it was impossible to gauge how many insurgents had been killed, the reporter said.
Ahead of a possible all-out assault, US troops forbade men aged from 15 to 50 from entering or leaving Fallujah and the surrounding areas, saying that anyone else who wanted to leave would not be allowed to return until order is restored.
"Attention, attention! All men aged between 15 and 50 are forbidden from entering or exiting (the area)," loud speakers on top of US vehicles declared in Arabic as they drove around the outskirts of the city.
"If they do, they will become a target," the military warned.
"Only women and chilren are allowed to leave on condition that they do not return until order is restored."
Some 20,000 US and Iraqi troops are gathered around Fallujah, west of Baghdad, awaiting for Allawi to instruct them to charge or stand down as he battles to restore order in the country ahead of the landmark polls.
In the initial signs of what may become the biggest battle since last year`s US-led invasion, warplanes swooped over the Sunni Muslim bastion, pounding rebel positions, as machinegun fire crackled from within, meeting artillery fire from US troops camped outside, an AFP reporter embedded with the marines said.
US marines in the northern fringe of Fallujah attempted to enter an apartment block that was rigged with explosives, but the group managed to leave before they detonated, setting fire to the building, an AFP reporter with the military said.
US commanders have warned its troops to be on the alert for suicide bombings, booby-trapped buildings and gunfire if they storm the city.
Under Iraq`s interim law passed during the previous US-led occupation authority, Allawi alone has the authority to retake Fallujah, which is believed to shelter followers of Iraq`s most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The prime minister has issued an ultimatum to the city to surrender its rebel fighters or face attack, but Fallujah leaders insist that men like Zarqawi do not live there.
"The window is closing absolutely," said Allawi again Sunday.
Rebels have transformed Fallujah into their fiefdom since a marine assault on the city in April ended in stalemate and left hundreds dead.
It is estimated now that 80 to 90 percent of the city`s 300,000 inhabitants have already left in fear of greater bloodshed.
US and Iraqi troops have been massing around the city since mid-October, while the US military is doubling its manpower in Fallujah`s sister city of Ramadi to 2,000 amid expectations of a double-pronged assault to regain control.
Allawi said the state of emergency was a message to insurgents about his determination to root them out.
Under the emergency laws, Iraqi authorities can impose curfews, ban meetings and bug communications, in moves which echo the authoritarian rule of toppled president Saddam Hussein`s regime.
A curfew had already been imposed on the restive city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, after a string of car bombs and clashes against police stations and local government targets Saturday left 36 people dead and scores injured.
Twenty-one policemen were killed in a dawn ambush on two police stations in the restive province of Al-Anbar, which is also home to Fallujah.
Some analysts fear that violence might spin out of control under a state of emergency restricting people`s movements and delaying elections, pointing at the resurgence of violence in Samarra barely one month after it was apparently reclaimed from rebel control in a major US-Iraqi offensive.
11/08/2004 - 11:19 GMT - AFP