Fallujah

THE THREE-WEEK confrontation in the Iraqi city of Najaf grabbed all the headlines before its peaceful semi-resolution last week; that enabled the gathering debacle in Fallujah to go largely unnoticed. But there's just as much trouble brewing in the Sunni areas of Iraq as in the Shiite ones, if not more. Out-and-out fighting has so far been averted, but that may be success of a very limited sort. Last spring, the Marines were prepared to strike at insurgents in Fallujah, much as they were last month in Najaf.

BAGHDAD - A leading Sunni political party's headquarters in western Iraq was blown up early yesterday morning. And in southern Iraq, where Shiite factions are fighting one another, a powerful bomb was discovered on the road to an important Shiite shrine. Both episodes pointed to probable tensions in the months ahead of provincial elections in which factions are fighting hard to ensure that they have a place at the political table. The explosion of the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, happened about 6 a.m., according to witnesses, who said the American military had been near the site of the bombing until about an hour before the detonation.

THE AMERICAN-LED assault on Fallujah, a city the size of Newark, N.J., from which many have fled but where up to 100,000 residents may yet remain, is now gathering steam. It has three possible outcomes: United States and allied Iraqi forces may succeed in smashing the armed insurgency there, and in doing so put all of Iraq on the road to an increasingly peaceful and political reconstruction. The battle could be a protracted and bloody one, especially for civilians. This could test Americans' patience and ignite Iraqi outrage and disaffection, to the point that huge swaths of the country become engulfed in violence.

Barry Subelsky never knew Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec. And until the Charleston, W.Va., police chief found out about Zembiec's combat death in May from e-mail messages circulated in the law enforcement community, he had never heard about the Marine who came to be known as the "Lion of Fallujah."

BAGHDAD - A leading Sunni political party's headquarters in western Iraq was blown up early yesterday morning. And in southern Iraq, where Shiite factions are fighting one another, a powerful bomb was discovered on the road to an important Shiite shrine. Both episodes pointed to probable tensions in the months ahead of provincial elections in which factions are fighting hard to ensure that they have a place at the political table. The explosion of the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, happened about 6 a.m., according to witnesses, who said the American military had been near the site of the bombing until about an hour before the detonation.

WASHINGTON - The United Nations' special envoy to Iraq delivered a blunt warning to the U.S. military yesterday not to launch a major attack to root out insurgents in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, saying that such a move would risk "a very bloody confrontation" with consequences that could be "dramatic and long-lasting." Addressing the U.N. Security Council, Lakhdar Brahimi said there is little doubt that "many lives have been lost and much suffering has been endured by civilians" in Fallujah, the scene of a tense and frequently violent standoff between U.S. Marines and Iraqi insurgents for several weeks.

FALLUJAH, Iraq - In another sign of rising armed resistance in central Iraq to the U.S.-led occupation, one American soldier was killed and five others were wounded early yesterday in an ambush just hours after the Army sent reinforcements here. Although occupation authorities say they do not believe attacks are being organized on a national level, they acknowledge that the strikes against U.S.-led forces have almost tripled - from 30 in April to 85 in May - and are planned, in most cases by remnants of Saddam Hussein's government.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Not for the first time, the U.S. military has sworn to "pacify" Fallujah. But none of the options facing commanders in the defiant Sunni Triangle city appears to hold more promise than the gamut of tactics that have been attempted, without success, for nearly a year. Since last April, U.S. commanders in western Iraq have tried everything from withdrawing troops from the city at the behest of city leaders to house-to-house searches. The former strategy gave the insurgents free rein to use the city as a base for disrupting other areas of the country.

WASHINGTON - Accounts of mobs hacking at ambushed Americans and displaying their corpses in the Iraqi city of Fallujah yesterday conjured memories of the killing of 18 U.S. Army Rangers in Somalia a little more than a decade ago, and of the gruesome image of one Ranger being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. Then, as now, the immediate reaction of the White House was to stay the course. Yet the grisly events of Oct. 4, 1993, are now seen as a turning point in the U.S. commitment to Somalia.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes struck insurgent-held Fallujah hard yesterday, 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 surge 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 responsibility for 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.

BAGHDAD -- Efforts to improve security in Anbar province, long the primary stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency, suffered a setback yesterday when suicide bombers detonated explosives at a police recruitment center in Fallujah and a police station in Ramadi. At least 20 people were killed and 31 injured, according to police and witnesses. Meanwhile, American military officials announced the deaths of three more U.S. soldiers, two killed Wednesday in a road bombing in Baghdad and one who died of wounds from a road bomb northwest of the capital Tuesday.

BAGHDAD -- The friends and family of slain Fallujah tribal leader Alawi Ahmed Zuwaid decided to ignore a threatening leaflet and honor him yesterday with a public funeral. The mourners were hit with the most deadly bombing of the day in Iraq. As the funeral procession moved through Fallujah, a suicide car bomber attacked the mourners, killing 30 people and injuring 34, authorities said. They were among at least 67 Iraqis killed or found dead yesterday. The U.S. military said two soldiers were killed Wednesday in Anbar province during combat operations.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Everyone assumed that the car parked outside the groom's home belonged to a friend or relative. But as the joyful, ribbon-decked convoy pulled up, conveying the bride to her new family, the vehicle exploded. Up to five guests were killed and 10 injured in the blast yesterday at a police officer's wedding in Fallujah, police and witnesses said. Word of the attack came as Iraqi police claimed to have killed up to 80 al-Qaida-linked gunmen and arrested 50 in fierce clashes on the city's outskirts the previous day. The figures could not be independently verified.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi troops set up new positions over the weekend on the outskirts of Ramadi, a city in Al Anbar province that has become a haven for the Sunni Arab-led insurgency, in an effort to bottle up guerrillas who have largely controlled the city in recent months. "We are focusing on multiple sites used by the insurgents to plan and conduct terrorist attacks and store weapons," Lt. Col. Bryan F. Salas, a Marine spokesman based in Fallujah, said yesterday. "We have also set up additional checkpoints to restrict the flow of insurgents, but citizens will still be able to enter and leave the city."

OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND / / Rumur Releasing / $24.98 This is the war in Iraq on the ground and in the dust. It's seen through the tedium and the green, night-vision lens of disorientation endemic to the grunt's-eye view. As chaotic as the landscape regularly appears, one message comes through loud and clear to the soldiers in the film: Most of the people of Iraq see them as occupiers, not liberators - and want them gone. March 19 marks the third anniversary of President Bush announcing the start of the military campaign in Iraq.

AMMAN, JORDAN -- An Iraqi woman appeared on Jordanian state television yesterday and confessed to being the fourth member of an al-Qaida suicide bomber team that attacked three hotels in Amman last week, killing 57 people. The woman calmly identified herself as Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, 35, a native of the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi. The footage showed her standing and turning to display what was described as a deactivated explosive belt wrapped around her body. Jordanian officials said she had been captured yesterday in Amman.

FALLUJAH, Iraq - After vowing never to negotiate with "terrorists" who killed and mutilated four American contractors, the U.S. military took to the airwaves yesterday to ask insurgent fighters in this battle-racked city to join a cease-fire and discuss how to return Fallujah to the control of Iraqi authorities. Meanwhile, a group of insurgents who kidnapped an American civilian outside Baghdad said in a videotaped message last night that they would mutilate and kill the man within 12 hours unless Americans withdrew from Fallujah.

WASHINGTON - As Marines prepare to head back into the rebellious Iraqi city of Fallujah, the stage is set for the most dreaded type of ground combat: urban warfare. While military officers and civilian officials held out hope that negotiations could produce a peaceful resolution to the standoff, they stressed that force might well be necessary. Fallujah could then pose the type of nightmare scenario that U.S. commanders expected to encounter in Baghdad last year. Some military officers and defense analysts feared that Saddam Hussein's soldiers would pull back into the city, set fire to oil-filled trenches and fire at U.S. troops from a warren of buildings and alleyways.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber killed at least six people yesterday when he slammed his vehicle into the wall outside an Iraqi police officer's home in Samarra, an insurgent stronghold 60 miles north of Baghdad. Local police said the officer targeted in the attack had survived, but at least four civilians on the street and two insurgents, besides the suicide bomber, had been killed. The Samarra attack, on a day that was otherwise notable for a relatively low level of insurgent attacks, demonstrated the increasing complexity that American commanders say they have identified in insurgent tactics in recent months.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, working to bolster fading U.S. support for the war in Iraq shortly after a car bomb had killed six Marines in Fallujah, reassured Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari that "there's not going to be any timetables" for withdrawing American troops. "You don't have to worry, Mr. Prime Minister, about timetables," Bush told al-Jaafari during a news conference after the two leaders' first White House meeting since al-Jaafari took office. "We are there to complete a mission, and it's an important mission."