Two US soldiers load missiles into the M109A6 Howitzer for Fallujah offensive (AFP)

BAGHDAD/FALLUJAH, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A cousin of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the cousin's wife and his daughter-in-law have been kidnapped from their house in Baghdad, while the US-led and Allawi-okayed offensive on the city of Fallujah entered its third straight day.

Three cars with at least six men inside pulled up to the house in the southern district of Al-Kadisiya from where they took Ghazi Allawi and his two family members, a source from the Iraqi National Accord told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Wednesday, November 10.

The source, who asked to remain anonymous, had no further details about the attack, which took place just hours after the tough-talking prime minister declared a night time curfew in Baghdad in a bid to curb escalating violence.

Allawi's office had no information on the kidnapping.

An anonymous group calling itself Ansar Al-Jahaar claimed in an unverified online message its responsibility for the abductions, vowing to execute the three relatives if Allawi did not stop the Fallujah onslaught.

The attack puts further pressure on the premier after he launched a full-scale assault on the restive city of Fallujah on Monday, November 8.

On-Going Offensive

Amid fierce Iraqi resistance, US occupation forces pushed deep into the Iraqi resistance bastion, seizing one third of Fallujah as the US military predicted no end for the bloody incursion in the foreseeable future.

"The military controls one third of the city," a high-ranking US marine officer told AFP earlier Wednesday.

Artillery and air strikes have pounded the western Iraqi city since the dawn broke out on Wednesday after a night lull, with fierce clashes erupting everywhere in the city.

Gunnery Sergeant Ishmail Castillo, a member of one tank crew, told Reuters news agency that Iraqi resistance fighters along the main road that cuts through Fallujah fired machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades after they had come under US mortar fire.

10 US Soldiers Killed

US marines pound Fallujah with heavy artillery

No exact reports were yet available on the casualty toll of the fighting in the city, but US marines said about ten US marines and two Iraqi troops were killed since the massive US offensive was launched.

"As of 6:30 pm (1530 GMT) November 9, there have been 10 US service members killed in Operation Al Fajr (Dawn), as well as reports of two Iraqi security forces killed," a US military statement said early Wednesday.

The US soldiers claimed that 85 Iraqi resistance men were killed, half of them by sniper fire, in the northwest part of the city.

Some bodies were buried under buildings that had been floored by artillery and ground bombardments.

"As for casualties on the insurgents' side I can tell you that they are dying. A lot of them are dying and this is a good thing," marine spokesman Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert said.

"We are downing them," said marine Major Todd Desgrosseilliers. "We are using good old American firepower."

The US massive onslaught on the Iraqi bastion of resistance is expected to continue for a few more days, a US military official said.

“I think we're looking at several more days of tough urban fighting," he told reporters at the Pentagon via a videophone, AFP reported.

Thousands of US Marine and Army forces, backed by hellish air strikes, ground fire and tanks, began Monday, November 8, a massive assault on Fallujah, west of Baghdad, after US-picked interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gave the go-ahead for an all-out assault.

The Interim Iraqi government declared Sunday, November 7, a state of emergency across the war-torn country, except for the Kurdish-run north.

About 80-to-90 percent of Fallujah's 300,000-strong population are said to have already evacuated the city, escaping the hell of continuous US air raids that destroyed hundreds of homes and killed hundreds of people, mostly women and children, according to local and hospital sources.

No Longer in Fallujah

A US high-ranking commander further said Wednesday that senior Arab fighters, including the Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, blamed by the US for several attacks against US forces in the war-torn country, have already fled the flashpoint city before the US massive onslaught on the city.

"I personally believe some of the senior leaders probably have fled," Let. Thomas Metz told AFP.

"I hope not, but I have to assume those kind of leaders understand the combat power we can bring and the fact that we will free Fallujah of anti-Iraqi forces."

Fallujah has been repeatedly coming under daily US onslaught under claims of harboring what the US forces term as “militants and terrorists”, including Zarqawi, the US most wanted man in Iraq .

Fallujah people have repeatedly maintained that they did not harbor the wanted man.

Since April, Fallujah has been the subject of successive US raids, which have, in effect, left thousands of Iraqis dead and homeless.

In one raid, at least 700 Iraqis, mostly women and children, were killed and 1,500 others injured in Fallujah when US occupation forces imposed a tight siege on the town and intensified air strikes on its densely-populated areas.