| US forces yesterday hit Iraq's rebel stronghold of Fallujah with the fiercest air and ground bombardment in months, as insurgents struck back with attacks that killed 37 people in Samarra. The Fallujah strikes, before a threatened major assault on Saddam Hussein loyalists and militants allied to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, destroyed a hospital, a medical warehouse and dozens of homes, dazed residents said after a sleepless night. Hospital staff said ambulances had been unable to go out as the city shook to explosions. Later, they collected two dead and seven wounded civilians, among them women and children. With a US-led offensive on Fallujah apparently imminent, rebels hit back with attacks in Samarra, Baghdad, Ramadi - another rebel-held city to be included in any Fallujah offensive. |