FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US troops with crack Iraqi soldiers surged into the heart of Fallujah in a hail of explosions and gunfire on the second day of the largest operation in Iraq since last year`s US-led war.
"They are less than one kilometre (half a mile) from the centre," a high-ranking US military officer told AFP.
Thousands of US and Iraqi troops poured in after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi authorised an all-out offensive to retake the Sunni Muslim city from rebels and restore order ahead of elections promised by January.
Shelling across Fallujah, a symbol of the insurgency that attacks the US-backed government on a daily basis, escalated as US troops advanced on the centre, fending off mortar and anti-aircraft fire.
As columns of smoke plumed skyward, insurgents fought back elsewhere in Iraq, killing at least two Iraqis in a suicide car bombing against a national guard base and wounding several policemen in assaults on two police stations.
Sunni and Shiite figures have condemned the assault, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, with one Sunni political party threatening to quit the government unless it was halted.
In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the forces would fight to the end to retake city, after a siege there in April left hundreds dead and ended in stalemate.
In a two-pronged assault, thousands of US troops poured into the northwestern Jolan neighbourhood and the Askari district in the northeast -- where they took control of the city`s station overnight.
"The offensive is from north to south," a high-ranking US officer told AFP.
The troops "faced resistance at the beginning but there is almost no resistance now. They are less than one kilometre from the centre."
Fearful of roadside bombs as they stormed the Jolan sector, seen as the heart of rebel activity in the city, US marines smashed through a railway line and ploughed through fields, an AFP reporter embedded with the unit said.
Knocking down walls, they moved house-to-house through the neighbourhood, spraying rounds of machine gunfire at buildings from where militants faught back with mortars.
A smattering of specially trained Iraqi forces accompanied the marines, while many more were poised on the outskirts of the city, preparing to enter.
Despite its superior manpower, the US military is anxious to put an Iraqi face on the Fallujah assault for political reasons as Iraq is a sovereign country.
Ending weeks of anticipation, US and Iraqi troops seized control of Fallujah`s main hospital during a pre-dawn offensive on Monday, triggering a day of clashes that erupted into the all-out assault as night fell.
Iraq`s Defense Minister Sheikh Hazem Shaalan warned that worse was to follow, while admitting that some insurgents had already fled, but he vowed to catch them.
Iraqi and US officials believe that Iraq`s most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers have turned Fallujah into an operating base. They gave the residents an ultimatum to surrender the fighters or face assault, but city leaders insist such people are not there.
Up to 90 percent of Fallujah`s 300,000 residents have fled Fallujah to surrounding camps or Baghdad as living conditions deteriorated and fears of the assault, which has been in the pipeline for months, grew.
Doctors inside the besieged city painted a grim picture amid a chronic lack of medical equipment, trained staff, water and electricity.
Determined to bring the unruly city in line, Allawi also announced a raft of draconian emergency measures on Monday including an indefinite curfew that would be lifted on an area-by-area basis when order was restored.
Some 20,000 US and Iraqi troops have been massing around Fallujah since mid-October. The offensive finally erupted a day after the government declared a state of emergency across most of Iraq.
US commanders estimate that 2,000 to 2,500 fighters, some loyal to Zarqawi, are inside the city and its surrounding areas, ready to fight. The military believes that another 10,000 men could join in the battle.
Out-gunned but still fighting, insurgents killed at least two Iraqis and wounded several others in a suicide car bomb attack against a national guard base north of Kirkuk.
Separately, at least 14 Iraqis were wounded, including nine policemen and national guard, in an attack on two police stations in the Baquba area, northeast of Baghdad.
11/09/2004 - 08:41 GMT - AFP