Fears grow for UK aid worker

UNITED States marines found what was believed to be the body of a Western woman as they continued their offensive in the shattered Iraqi town of Fallujah yesterday.

The body has yet to be identified but only two Western women, British aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, and Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, from Poland, are known to have been kidnapped in Iraq.

The mutilated body was discovered lying in the street covered with a blood-soaked cloth during a security sweep through the centre of Fallujah.

A US marine officer said he was "80 per cent sure" it was a Western woman.

As sporadic fighting continued in Fallujah, an Islamic group yesterday freed two women relatives of Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi.

The women were among three of Mr Allawi’s relatives kidnapped last week and threatened with death unless the US-led assault on Fallujah was called off.

The prime minister’s 75-year-old first cousin, Ghazi Allawi, is still being held.

With all but a few remaining pockets of resistance now defeated, US military sources yesterday said the battle for Fallujah had gone quicker than expected.

The entire town had been occupied after six days of fighting which senior US officials said had left more than 1,200 militants dead. A further 31 US troops have been killed in the fighting, along with six Iraqi national guardsmen.

US marine Major General Richard Natonski, who planned the offensive on Fallujah, said he and other commanders had learned from April’s failed three-week marine assault on the town, which was called off by US President George Bush’s administration after a worldwide outcry over civilian deaths.

This time, the military sent in six times as many troops and 20 types of aircraft. Troops also faked attacks before the assault to confuse enemy fighters.

"We learned we can’t do it piecemeal. When we go in, we go all the way through. We had the green light this time and we went all the way," he said.

US marines and army units were yesterday still battling bands of defenders scattered in buildings and bunkers across Fallujah while, behind them, Iraqi troops were clearing weapons and fighters from every room of Fallujah’s estimated 50,000 buildings.

US forces now occupy - but have yet to subdue - the entire city. It could still take several days of fighting to clear the final pockets of resistance, the US military said.

As the battle for Fallujah continued, concern has been growing for civilians still trapped inside the town without access to food or medical supplies.

US forces yesterday refused to allow an Iraqi Red Crescent aid convoy into Fallujah, citing security reasons.

The Iraqi Red Crescent believes at least 150 families are trapped inside Fallujah but the US military yesterday said it saw no need for the Iraqi Red Crescent to deliver aid and added it did not think any Iraqi civilians were trapped inside the city.

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society said that another convoy would travel from Baghdad to Fallujah today, carrying food and aid for about 2,000 families living inside the city as well as in camps on the outskirts.

Fighting continued elsewhere in Iraq yesterday, with militants seizing control of a police station in the Sunni city of Mosul.

US and Iraqi forces fought for more than two hours to recapture the Sheikh Fatih station in the city’s southwest, a US military spokeswoman in Mosul said.

Two US soldiers were also wounded in sporadic fighting in the nearby town of Tal Afar, where insurgents had attacked a police academy with small arms, Captain Angela Bowman said.

Mosul tipped into chaos on Wednesday and Thursday when groups of up to 50 militants took over some neighbourhoods, paraded through the city centre brandishing their weapons and chased away local police.

Scores of police defected, stripping off their uniforms and joining the insurgents.

Elsewhere, insurgents clashed with US troops after blowing up a railroad overpass a day earlier in the northern Iraqi town of Beiji, the US military said.

A gun battle erupted between militants and US troops in Beji’s central market late yesterday evening, killing at least six people and wounding 20 others. Several cars were set on fire in the town 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Earlier yesterday, insurgents attacked US soldiers with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Baghdad’s international airport will reopen to civilian traffic today after being closed for a week under a state of emergency declared before the assault on Fallujah, prime minister Allawi said.

"Tomorrow we will open the airport and we will open the borders so Iraqis can resume their normal lives," Mr Allawi said.

The prime minister added that the crossing point into Syria at Qaim would remain closed.