U.S. warplanes launched air strikes in the Iraqi city of Falluja on Wednesday amid fierce fighting between U.S.-led forces and rebels. Machinegun, mortar and rocket fire shook the Sunni Muslim city as planes made several bombing runs over the northwestern Jolan district within 15 minutes, a Reuters reporter said. Smoke was rising from houses just beyond Falluja's captured rail station, where Marines and Iraqi forces have a base. Marines said their opponents showed no signs of giving up, even though U.S. forces penetrated to the centre of the city, west of Baghdad, after an offensive launched on Monday night.Marine tanks that pushed through central Falluja on Tuesday night met tough resistance. Gunnery Sergeant Ishmail Castillo, a member of one tank crew, told Reuters insurgents along the main road that cuts through Falluja fired machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades after they had come under U.S. mortar fire. Another Reuters reporter said explosions and smoke marked heavy fighting in Jolan and the eastern Hay al-Askari district.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday evening that at least 10 U.S. and two Iraqi soldiers had died in the offensive unleashed by 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines and 2,000 Iraqi troops. Allawi and his U.S. backers have vowed to retake rebel-held areas before the January polls. They say disgruntled Baathists and militants led by Jordanian al-Qaeda ally Zarqawi have turned Falluja into the epicentre of Iraq's bloody insurgency. Metz said Zarqawi and other senior rebels have probably already fled Falluja, leaving the fighting to lesser ranks.