A hospital doctor, Thamim al-Nuaimi, said five
civilians had been killed and 11 wounded in the overnight raids.
Falluja police, who do not answer to the U.S.-backed interim government, said
U.S. marines detained Sunni Muslim cleric Khaled al-Jumaili, the city's police
chief and two other police officers while they were moving their families to a
nearby resort town for safety from American air raids.
A U.S. military spokesman could neither confirm nor deny the arrest of
Jumaili, who had been leading a Falluja delegation in peace talks with the
government that broke down this week.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Wednesday to attack Falluja
unless its people handed over militants loyal to Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
said to be holed up there.
Zarqawi, America's deadliest enemy in Iraq, has a $25 million U.S. bounty on
his head. The United States on Friday ordered a freeze on assets of Zarqawi's
group, a day after Britain took the same step.
His group claimed Thursday's twin suicide bombings that killed five people,
including three Americans, in Baghdad's Green Zone on the eve of Ramadan.
Fierce air strikes hit Falluja after the blasts as U.S. and Iraqi forces
intensified pressure on suspected Zarqawi targets in and around the bastion of
Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad.
But the military denied the bombing campaign was a prelude to a full-scale
assault to wrest Falluja from rebel hands.
"This is part of ongoing operations in Falluja. It is not the beginning of a
major offensive," a U.S. spokeswoman said.
Washington and Baghdad have vowed to retake insurgent-held towns and cities
ahead of nationwide elections due in January.
ARMS AMNESTY
Some Iraqis elsewhere in the country say an offensive is the best thing that
could happen to Falluja, a town which has become synonymous with Iraq's
insurgency over the past 18 months.
"Allawi must attack Falluja in whatever way necessary because they are the
main reason for instability in Iraq," said Iman Jadoa, 40, a clerk from the
southern Shi'ite city of Basra.
"They must be made to pay," she said.
Others questioned why no suicide car bombs ever hit Falluja, and said the
city needed to be taught a lesson if the Iraq was to be peaceful for the polls.
"I consider any invasion of Falluja a great step -- that's where the
terrorists are," said Samkoo Mohammed-Ali, a university student in the peaceful
Kurdish city of Suleimaniya.
"Why are there no bombings in Falluja? It's because a mosquito doesn't sting
itself."
Shi'ite militiamen have been turning weapons in to police in Baghdad's Sadr
City district under a five-day cash-for-weapons campaign. The head of the drive
said it had been extended for two days because of the overwhelming response.
Police had earlier said it would last five more days.
The deal with followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was intended to
halt weeks of fighting with U.S. forces in the sprawling slums in northeastern
Baghdad.
Ramadan, observed by Iraq's minority Sunnis from Friday, will start for
majority Shi'ites on Saturday.
There was no repeat of the coordinated suicide bombings that wreaked havoc in
Baghdad at the start of Ramadan last year, when at least 40 people were killed
in attacks on the International Committee of the Red Cross offices and three
police stations.
But a suicide car bomber killed one civilian and wounded nine policemen and
five civilians near a police station in southern Baghdad on Friday, police said.
The military said the Falluja raids at 2.38 a.m. (2338 GMT Thursday) hit
"command and control sites" used by senior Zarqawi leaders to store weapons and
plan attacks, adding that air strikes since Thursday had destroyed many other
Zarqawi targets.
Falluja residents have scoffed at such statements in the past, saying they
have no knowledge of Zarqawi or his group and accusing the Americans of bombing
civilian homes.
The Green Zone blasts at a souvenir bazaar and a cafe popular with U.S.
troops and civilians were the first suicide bombings inside what is supposed to
be the safest place in Iraq. The country's interim government quickly vowed to
strike back.
