The U.S. offensive on Fallujah left hundreds of civilians killed and wounded

Additional reporting by Numir El-Higazi, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, April 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – After just 90 minutes, a U.S. field commander said Friday, April 9 that his troops had ended their suspension of a six-day-old offensive in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.

Marines were seen firing grenade launchers at resistance spots in the city, but there was no official word from the office of U.S. overseer Paul Bremer, who had earlier announced a suspension of hostilities in Fallujah, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The suspension of offensive operations lasted for 90 minutes but it is over," said Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne, a battalion commander, adding that planned mediation talks with local tribal sheikhs had never happened.

Bremer declared early Friday a suspension of the military offensive on the western Baghdad town of Fallujah.

"As of noon today (0800 GMT) U.S.-led forces have initiated a unilateral suspension of offensive operations in Fallujah," Bremer said outside a meeting of the Iraqi ministerial committee for national security, according to AFP.

He said the suspension was meant to "allow for a meeting between members of the Governing Council, local Muslim leadership and the leadership of anti-coalition forces,”.

Moments before, the U.S. deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, denied reports of a formal ceasefire in Fallujah.

"There is no brokered agreement for a ceasefire in Fallujah," Kimmitt said.

As Bremer said the attacks on the city would be halted as of 8:00 GMT, a correspondent for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV said that air attacks on Fallujah continue unabated.

"They shelled the west of the country a few minutes ago, and now (they are) attacking its northern parts," the correspondent said.

“People are scared. They are angry,” al-Jazeera correspondent said, with the buzzing of F16 rocking the town appearing on screen.

The correspondent said corpses littered the streets of the town, as the U.S. marines met ferocious resistance in the town which their commander compared to the Vietnam war.

F16 fighter jets shelled the densely-populated areas of the town Wednesday, leaving 45 inhabitants dead and 65 others injured for one day.

More than 300 people were killed and hundreds others injured in the air strikes that began Monday, April 6.

Flies buzzed on the lips of the corpse of a 40-year-old Iraqi with a mustache and receding black hairline. Marines shot him in the neck.

Late Thursday, the Iraqi Islamic Party said in a statement obtained by AFP that an agreement had been reached with the U.S. forces for a 24-hour ceasefire in Fallujah from midday (0800 GMT) Friday.

Resistance Attacks

Street fighting is ferocious in Fallujah

Meanwhile, resistance fighters managed to cut supply lines of the U.S. occupation forces laying tight siege to Fallujah, IslamOnline.net correspondent said.

A number of hooded fighters afflicted heavy damages on the American forces leaving for the city using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

Three U.S. tankers near Abu Ghraib, a western suburb of Baghdad were seen burning after attacks by resistance fighters.

U.S. Casualties

In the meantime, the U.S. occupation forces said six more soldiers were killed in Iraq Wednesday and Thursday, as three Spanish forces were injured in an ambush in the south of the still-turbulent country.

In a statement issued Thursday, April 8, the U.S. military said five more soldiers had been killed in the last two days, bringing to 449 the number of American troops slain after the invasion.

The statement said two Marines had been killed in western Iraq, one Wednesday and one Thursday.

Marines have met fierce resistance in the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in western Iraq.

The statement said one 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed by an attack involving a roadside bomb, a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire north of Baghdad.

A soldier had also died Thursday from wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack last Sunday on a convoy in the northern city of Mosul, it said.

Spanish Casualties

Three Spanish soldiers were injured, one seriously, in an ambush in the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniyah overnight, the Spanish Defense Ministry said Friday.

The soldiers came under attack while crossing a bridge in the town on patrol, the Ministry said.

One soldier was seriously wounded, hit in the eye and neck, but his condition was not life threatening, it said in a statement.

Spain currently has 1,300 troops deployed in Iraq but incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to pull the force out by June 30 unless the United Nations is given a central role in the operations there.