Battle rages in centre of Falluja
US marines have taken the mayor's office in central Falluja and say they now control 70% of the Iraqi city with rebels hemmed into a narrow strip.Reporting from the mayoral compound, the BBC's Paul Wood says a battle is still raging in the city centre while US-led forces control the perimeter.
According to US estimates, hundreds of rebels were killed on Wednesday alone and at least one more marine died.
Relief groups say they are deeply worried about the fate of civilians.
Our correspondent said that on Wednesday morning no civilians could be seen on the streets, shops were shuttered and black smoke was rising all around.
Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic, says the city now looks like Kabul, the Afghan capital largely reduced to rubble after years of warfare.
One marine officer, Maj Francis Piccoli, said the rebels had been squeezed into a strip of the city bordering the east-west motorway which splits Falluja.
"There's going to be a movement today in those areas," he added.
New casualties
Marines backed by tanks met little opposition when they blasted their way into the mayor's compound, which also houses a police station, at around 0400 local time (0100 GMT), Paul Wood reports.
However, they came under sustained fire around dawn from the minaret of a mosque, says our correspondent, whose reports are subject to military restrictions.
According to marines, the rebels waved a white flag at one stage but opened fire from three directions when a marine interpreter tried to begin talks. The marines then called in air strikes.
Other marines reported intense exchanges of fire in a north-western district.
One marine was killed and several seriously injured, bringing the death toll to 11 Americans and two Iraqi government soldiers.
"As for casualties on the insurgents' side, I can tell you that they are dying," marine spokesman Lt Lyle Gilbert told AFP news agency.
In other developments:
- Militants launch sustained gun and rocket attacks in Mosul as US aircraft fly low above the northern city
- Militants abduct three relatives of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Baghdad and reportedly threaten to kill them unless the Falluja siege is lifted
- Roadside bombs near the northern city of Kirkuk kill six Iraqi national guardsmen
- One US soldier is killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad
'Total destruction'
Lt Gen Thomas Metz, the multinational ground force commander in Iraq, warned of "several more days of tough urban fighting" ahead, adding that rebel leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - America's most wanted man in Iraq - appeared to have fled before the assault began.
In Washington, President George W Bush praised the US-led forces in Falluja for their "hard work... for a free Iraq".
However, Iraq's largest Sunni-led political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, pulled out of the interim government in protest at the Falluja assault.
The main association of Sunni clerics also voiced its disapproval, calling for a boycott of elections due in January.
Neighbouring Iran also voiced serious concern over Iraqi losses in Falluja.
Aid agencies have highlighted the plight of civilians in Falluja where up to 50,000 people remain out of a pre-war population of 300,000.
The Red Cross has urged all combatants to guarantee passage to those in need of medical care.
Paul Wood notes that despite efforts by US forces to select targets carefully, their use of heavy artillery and tanks is bound to lead to civilian casualties.
An unnamed man claiming to be a rebel fighter told the BBC's Today programme that the destruction in Falluja was "total".
"The Americans are bombing everywhere - everything is destroyed," he said, adding that water and electricity had been cut off."
The assault on Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni resistance, is officially aimed at stabilising Iraq ahead of January's poll.
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