Strikes aim to disrupt attacks

BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. warplanes struck the insurgent-held city of Fallujah hard Friday, the latest assault in a bombing campaign that has intensified with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Vowing to disrupt guerrilla bands planning car bombings and other attacks, and mindful that Ramadan last year brought a spike in such incidents, the U.S. military is targeting Fallujah sites that it says are being used by militants linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Al-Zarqawi’s group claimed the twin bombings Thursday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, and security was tightened there and at other strategic sites housing Western soldiers and civilians. The U.S. State Department also officially declared al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid and Jihad group a terrorist organization.

Iraqi and U.S. officials say the group has taken refuge in Fallujah, and authorities are demanding that Fallujah hand over any foreign fighters or face a withering Marine assault. Al-Zarqawi’s group has claimed numerous kidnappings, beheadings, ambushes and car bombings of Westerners and Iraqis.

A car bombing Friday morning in southern Baghdad targeted an Iraqi police patrol but killed 10 civilians, the U.S. military said. Among the dead were a family of four driving by at the time, as well as laborers working in a nearby palm grove. Four police officers were among the 14 people wounded.

The stepped-up bombing of Fallujah does not mean a land assault on the city is imminent, U.S. officials said. But the government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has vowed to retake Fallujah and other insurgent bastions in time to hold national elections in January.

Residents said the latest round of air attacks and artillery shelling was more intense than any since the Marines withdrew from Fallujah in April under a deal that ultimately led to the insurgents taking control. Friday’s bombing runs were also accompanied by land maneuvers, as Marines tightened checkpoints in hopes of containing or capturing guerrilla forces.

The strikes began Thursday night, lasted through dawn Friday as Sunni residents were greeting the beginning of Ramadan, and then resumed at sundown Friday.

They came after peace talks between Iraqi officials and city leaders broke down over the demand that Fallujah leaders hand over al-Zarqawi and his militants.

U.S. Marines reportedly arrested Fallujah’s top negotiator in the peace talks.

The U.S. military in Baghdad declined to comment.

In a statement read Friday in Sunni mosques in Baghdad and elsewhere, Fallujah clerics vowed to wage a civil disobedience campaign if the Marines stormed the city. If that failed, the clerics said, they would proclaim a holy war against all U.S.-led forces “as well as those collaborating with them.”

Fallujah leaders say al-Zarqawi is not in their city, comparing him to the weapons of mass destruction that the Bush administration had said were stockpiled by Saddam Hussein.

“The Fallujah delegation decided to suspend the negotiations … and we are not going to take them up again unless the occupation forces pull out of all Iraqi cities and villages,” said an insurgent leader who identified himself as Abu Ahmed. “We put the responsibility on Allawi and his government for the loss of Muslim blood in Fallujah.”

Some residents said the U.S. move to seal off escape routes for insurgents had prevented them from leaving.

“I brought my family back from Baghdad to Fallujah,” said Bashir Fisal, 28. “I should take them out again or Fallujah will be their cemetery. I don’t know what to do.”

While many residents have been leaving Fallujah, insurgent fighters are said to be laying land mines and making other preparations for a U.S. assault.

Also Friday, Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka promised to start withdrawing the nation’s 2,500 soldiers from Iraq next year.

He gave no timetable but told lawmakers: “I assure you that we will not stay an hour longer in Iraq than is needed. … Poland will reduce its contingent from the start of 2005 and will discuss subsequent reductions.”

Baghdad’s Green Zone, the 4-square-mile fortified compound in the city center that is home to about 10,000 Iraqis, Iraqi government offices and Western embassies and military bases, remained under tight security imposed after Thursday’s bombings.

U.S.-led forces expanded their deployment and increased patrols within the Green Zone and on its perimeter. Combat aircraft patrolled the skies over Baghdad. And security at Baghdad International Airport, already multilayered, was tightened.

The measures, which a military spokesman said “will be in effect until deemed otherwise,” were based on two factors.

Intelligence indicated that insurgent forces were planning attacks “to gain media attention … and create the perception of instability in Iraq and thereby disrupt the upcoming Iraqi elections.”

And with the start of the Ramadan holy month this weekend – Friday for Sunni Muslims and today for Shiites – authorities were expecting an increase in attacks on military and civilian targets.

Last year, the first day of Ramadan was one of the bloodiest since the anti-occupation insurgency broke out in May 2003.

Islam frowns on fighting during Ramadan, the ninth month of the religious calendar and a time when the observant fast and abstain from sex, cigarettes and other diversions during daylight hours.

But many Muslim scholars say war against oppression and occupation – which is how the insurgents portray their fight against U.S.-led forces and the interim Iraqi government – must be waged without fail.

Some Baghdad residents reported receiving letters warning them to stay off the streets in the early days of Ramadan to enable insurgent attacks on Western targets.