U.S. forces corner insurgents in Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- U.S. forces cornered insurgents Wednesday in a small section of Fallujah after a stunningly swift advance that seized control of 70 percent of the militant stronghold. An Iraqi general said troops found "hostage slaughterhouses" where foreign captives had been killed.\nThe abandoned houses had hostages' documents, CDs showing captives being killed, and black clothing worn by militants in videos, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan said.\nBut it appeared troops did not find any of the at least nine foreigners still in kidnappers' hands -- including two Americans. \n"We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people," Mohan said. But he said he did not know which hostages' documents were uncovered.\nThe speed of the U.S. drive in Fallujah may indicate that most Sunni fighters and their leaders abandoned the city before the offensive and moved elsewhere to carry on the fight, officers said. The most notorious kidnapper, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is believed to have fled the city.\nMohan, the head of the 2,000 Iraqi troops involved in Fallujah, said insurgents were still trying to escape encirclement.People were seen trying to swim across the Euphrates River, Mohan said at a press conference alongside Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.\nSome remaining fighters have asked to surrender, government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb told reporters.\nMohan vowed to finish uprooting Sunni gunmen, pointing to guerrilla slayings of Iraqi security forces in the past. "For this, the Iraqi armed forces don't want revenge, but they want to get rid of insurgents, the evil, the murderers," he said.\nMeanwhile, armed men kidnapped three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi -- his cousin, the cousin's wife and their daughter-in-law -- from their Baghdad home Tuesday night, al-Naqeeb said. A militant group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad claimed in a Web posting to be holding them threatened to behead them in 48 hours unless the Fallujah siege is lifted. The claim's authenticity could not be verified.\nThe abduction appeared to be part of a campaign of violence by insurgents this week aimed at opening a "second front" to divert U.S. and Iraqi forces from the Fallujah offensive.\nInsurgent violence sharpened across central and northern Iraq on Wednesday, with at least 18 people killed in fighting Wednesday, including a U.S. soldier and a foreign contractor. Authorities clamped an immediate curfew on the northern city of Mosul as U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen there. Fierce fighting also took place in Baghdad, to the south, and in Ramadi, a Sunni stronghold where explosions shook the city as U.S. troops and gunmen battled near the main government building.\nStill, U.S. and Iraqi troops were pushing ahead in Fallujah.\nSattler told reporters that the insurgents had been reduced to "small pockets, blind, moving throughout the city. And we will continue to hunt them down and destroy them." Maj. Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said U.S. forces now control 70 percent of the city.\nAt least 71 militants have been killed as of the beginning of the third day of intense urban combat, the military said. As of Tuesday night, 10 U.S. troops and two members of the Iraqi security forces had been killed. Marine reports Wednesday said 25 American troops and 16 Iraqi soldiers were wounded.\nU.S. and Iraqi forces seized Fallujah's city hall compound before dawn after a gunbattle with insurgents who hit U.S. tanks with anti-armor rockets. Iraqi soldiers swept into a police station in the compound and raised a flag above it.\nGunmen fired on troops from a mosque minaret, sparking a battle there, BBC's embedded correspondent Paul Wood reported. Marines said the insurgents waved a white flag at one stage but then opened fire, prompting the Marines to call in airstrikes, Wood said.\nTank gunners opened fire on insurgents in a nearby five-story apartment building, and flames shot from several windows of the building.\nResidents reported heavy clashes and artillery shelling in the Jolan and Jumhuriya neighborhood, along the central highway.\nDead bodies lay on the streets of Jumhuriya, with dogs hovering around them, witnesses said. Residents said they were running out of food in a city that had its electricity cut two days ago.\nThe speed of the U.S.-Iraqi advance in the city suggested most insurgents likely fled before the assault began so they could fight elsewhere, officers said Wednesday. Iraqi and U.S. commanders had been warning for weeks that they invade Fallujah to re-establish government control.\n"That's probably why we've been able to move as fast as we have," said one officer from the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, who asked not to be named.\nFallujah's defenses have crumbled faster than U.S. commanders expected. With their command networks broken down, bands of three to five guerrillas were left fighting for self-preservation rather than as part of a larger force, officials said.\nAbout 100 men, women and children made their way to American positions in the south of the city and gave themselves up Wednesday, an officer from the Army's 1st Cavalry Division said. The group was to be searched for weapons and questioned, and all military-age men would be detained, the officer said.\nMost of Fallujah's 200,000 to 300,000 residents are believed to have fled the city before the U.S. assault. Civilian casualties in the attack are not known, though U.S. commanders say they believe they are low.\nThe U.S. advance in Fallujah was more rapid than in an offensive in April, when insurgents fought a force of fewer than 2,000 Marines to a standstill in a three-week siege. It ended with the Americans handing over the city to a local force, which lost control to Islamic militants.