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Iraqis Declare 60-Day State of Emergency

Posted on: Sunday, 7 November 2004, 15:00 CST

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout most of the country Sunday, paving the way for an all-out assault on the guerrilla sanctuary of Fallujah. Militants dramatically escalated attacks, killing at least 30 people, including two Americans.

American troops began final preparations for battle in Fallujah as commanders warned them to expect the most brutal urban fighting since the Vietnam War. The U.S. command announced it had sealed off Fallujah and was "finishing final preparations for an assault" on the city.

Underscoring the country's instability, several heavy explosions thundered through the capital even as government spokesman Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb was announcing the state of emergency, which applies throughout the country except for Kurdish-ruled areas in the north.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who called a meeting Sunday with his defense minister, interior minister and provincial police commanders, said the state of emergency is a "very powerful message that we are serious" about reining in insurgents before elections set for late January.

"We want to secure the country so elections can be done in a peaceful way and the Iraqi people can participate in the elections freely, without the intimidation by terrorists and by forces who are trying to wreck the political process in Iraq," he told reporters.

Insurgents waged a second day of multiple attacks across the restive Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad, storming police stations, assassinating government officials and setting off deadly car bombs. About 60 people have been killed and 75 injured in the two days of attacks.

At dawn, armed rebels stormed three police stations in the towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 137 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing 22 policemen. Some were lined up and shot execution-style, police and hospital officials.

Assassins gunned down a Diyala governor's aide and two provincial council members south of Baghdad as they were on their way to a funeral in Karbala for a fourth colleague assassinated earlier this week.

Three attacks on U.S. convoys in and around Baghdad killed two American soldiers and wounded five others Sunday, the military said. Residents reported grenades setting police cars aflame on Haifa Street in the heart of the capital.

A car bomb also exploded near the Baghdad home of Iraq's finance minister, Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading Shiite politician. Abdel-Mahdi and his family were not home at the time but the U.S. military said the bomb killed one Iraqi bystander and wounded another. A U.S. patrol came under small-arms fire as it responded, wounding one soldier, a statement said.

Two British soldiers were seriously injured by a suicide car bomber southwest of Baghdad, while a British contractor was killed in a roadside bombing.

In Web postings, the al-Qaida affiliate group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attacks in Samarra, Ramadi and Baghdad. The claims could not be verified, but U.S. officials believe al-Zarqawi's group uses Fallujah as a base.

The widespread insurgent attacks seemed aimed at relieving the pressure on Fallujah, where about 10,000 American troops are massing for a major assault if Allawi gives the green light.

Iraqi officials would not say whether the emergency law decree meant the decision to storm Fallujah had been taken. However, the decree lays the groundwork for a severe crackdown in areas where guerrillas operate.

Under the law, a 24-hour curfew was imposed on Fallujah and surrounding areas, banning all traffic on the streets as well as men between 15-55 years of age. All members of the Fallujah police and security services were suspended indefinitely. Under the emergency power, all roads into Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi are closed indefinitely.

Residents reported hearing U.S. warplanes roar overhead as heavy artillery pounded targets throughout the city. Insurgents fired back, and gunfire crackled through the night.

Government negotiators reported the failure of last-minute talks for peace as Allawi continued to maintain that dialogue with Fallujah leaders was still possible, even if a large-scale military action began.

Allawi, a secular-minded Shiite Muslim, faces strong pressure from within the minority Sunni community to avoid an all-out assault.

"I urge the brother prime minister to reconsider the issue of storming Fallujah and to give another chance for dialogue," Hatim Jassim, a member of the Iraqi National Council, told Al-Jazeera television.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others have warned that a military offensive could trigger a wave of violence that would sabotage the January elections by alienating the Sunni minority which forms the core of the insurgency.

The influential Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars has threatened to call a boycott of elections if Fallujah is attacked. A public outcry over civilian casualties prompted the Bush administration to call off a siege in April, after which Fallujah fell under control of radical clerics.

More than 10,000 U.S. troops - including two Marine battalions, an Army battalion and two Iraqi brigades - are expected to take a role in the assault on Fallujah, whose green-lit minarets are visible from the American base near the city.

U.S. jets have been pounding the rebel bastion for days, launching its heaviest airstrikes in six months on Saturday - including five 500-pound bombs dropped on insurgent targets - in efforts to soften up militants.

On Sunday, U.S. commanders were giving troops last-minute pep talks, comparing their efforts to come with historic battles in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

U.S. intelligence estimates there are about 3,000 insurgents dug in behind defenses and booby traps in Fallujah, a city of about 300,000 which has become a symbol throughout the Islamic world of Iraqi resistance to the U.S.-led occupation.

Sgt. Maj. Carlton W. Kent, the top enlisted Marine in Iraq, told troops the coming battle of Fallujah would be "no different" than the historic fights at Inchon in Korea, the flag-raising victory at Iwo Jima, or the bloody assault to dislodge North Vietnamese from the ancient citadel of Hue they seized in the 1968 Tet Offensive.

"You're all in the process of making history," Kent told a crowd of some 2,500 Marines. "This is another Hue city in the making. I have no doubt, if we do get the word, that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done - kick some butt."

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Associated Press correspondents Jim Krane near Fallujah and Mariam Fam, Katarina Kratovac and Maggie Michael in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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