BAGHDAD (AFP) - US forces shelled rebel holdouts in Fallujah and 13 people were killed in deadly attacks elsewhere in Iraq, as a report by marine intelligence warned the insurgency would grow despite massive offensives to crush the rebels.
US-led troops engaged in sporadic battles against rebels in Fallujah after launching a major assault to wrest the Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad from insurgents 10 days ago.
Shelling continued on the southern outskirts of the city, an AFP photographer said, even after a US marine officer had declared Wednesday that the "the battle is over."
Iraqi volunteers and US troops were able to clear 24 corpses from the battered city and evacuate five civilians, an AFP correspondent said.
The Iraqi Red Crescent said 150 families remained stranded.
The US marine intelligence report warned that any significant troop withdrawal from Fallujah would strengthen the insurgency, The New York Times said.
The assessment, distributed to senior marine and army officers in Iraq, said that despite the heavy fighting, the insurgents would continue to increase in number, carrying out attacks and fomenting unrest.
"The enemy will be able to effectively defeat (the marines') ability to accomplish its primary objectives of developing an effective Iraqi security force and setting the conditions for successful Iraqi elections."
Military officials in Iraq and Washington disputed the report's findings, saying they represented only the "worst-case assessment" and that there would be no pullout of US troops from the city.
The raid on Fallujah, part of a bid to reclaim key rebel enclaves across the country ahead of January elections, has been the largest military operation in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.
As fighting wound down in Fallujah, Iraqi commandos backed by US troops were set to storm rebel strongholds in the main northern city of Mosul, where US-led forces are trying to clear insurgents who overran police stations last week.
Five Iraqi troops were wounded in a mortar attack in the west of the city, Lieutenant Ziad Framzi said.
The military operations came as more deadly violence shook Iraq a day after at least 23 people were killed in unrest across the Sunni belt.
At least 13 Iraqis were killed in attacks around the country, including a suicide car bombing in Baghdad and roadside bombings to its north, police said.
Meanwhile, the United States became the latest nation to condemn the apparent murder of Margaret Hassan, the head of CARE International's Iraq operations who was seized by unknown attackers on October 19 while on her way to work.
"We strongly condemn the abduction and murder of this prominent humanitarian," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement. "Her death is a great loss to the Iraqi people and the world."
If her death is confirmed, she is believed to be the first foreign female hostage to have been murdered in Iraq, and the second British hostage.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard backed away from an earlier statement in parliament that the mutilated body of a woman found in Fallujah appeared to be that of Hassan.
Howard did say there was every indication that Hassan was the woman who appeared in a video received by Al-Jazeera Tuesday showing an armed man shooting a blindfolded woman in the head.
The body of a blonde-haired woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit was found Sunday lying on a street in Fallujah. It has not been identified.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, meanwhile, voiced his concern to the US military after footage of a US marine killing a wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque was broadcast on television channels worldwide.
The incident shocked Arab television audiences and the pictures dealt a fresh blow to the image of the US-led forces in Iraq. The marines said that the man involved had been withdrawn from the battlefield pending the results of an investigation.
And differences between world powers over Iraq again moved into the spotlight at an Anglo-French summit.
French President Jacques Chirac arrived in Britain, with Iraq a sore point after the man who led European opposition to the US-led war said he was not convinced that the world had become safer since the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
"There's no doubt that there has been an increase in terrorism and one of the origins of that has been the situation in Iraq. I am not at all sure that one can say that the world is safer," said Chirac.
But Britain and France both want a "stable and democratic Iraq" despite their falling out over the war, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said after his talks with Chirac.
Iraq was also likely to emerge as a key issue at this weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Chile where US President George W. Bush, on his first trip abroad since winning re-election, will seek support for his policies.
11/18/2004 - 15:36 GMT - AFP