US forces seal Fallujah ready for major attack
American forces blocked roads round Iraq's rebel-held city of Fallujah today after mounting air strikes overnight that local hospital sources said killed three people.
The military said its warplanes struck early today in the latest of five attacks within seven hours on rebel targets there.
Residents said troops had sealed off all roads in and out of the Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 people as US marines prepared a major offensive designed to crush the rebels before nationwide elections in January.
The hospital sources said four people were also wounded in the air strikes. Residents said five houses were destroyed.
The US military said its air strikes had hit an arms cache, a rebel command post and other targets.
Rebels responded with fierce mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks on US troops around the city.
US marines say they are awaiting orders from President Bush and Iraq's interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, who is visiting Europe, before storming Fallujah and Ramadi, another Sunni city west of Baghdad with a rebel stronghold.
- A British security contractor killed in a suicide car bombing near Baghdad airport has been named. John Barker, believed to be from Leeds, Kent, and employed by private firm, Global Risk Strategies, was working at a checkpoint on Wednesday when a bomber detonated his car.
