IRAQ U.S. jets bomb rebels

Militants rule the city of Fallujah.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. jets pounded the rebel stronghold of Fallujah and a town near the Syrian border that had come under control of insurgents, killing dozens of people, officials and witnesses said today.
Warplanes hammered Tal Afar, a northern city suspected of lying on a smuggling route, in efforts to return the city to Iraqi government control.
At least 27 people were killed and 70 were injured, said Nineveh province health chief Dr. Rabie Yassin, who accused the military of stopping outsiders from bringing in help. The military said initial reports put the number of insurgents dead at 57.
"The U.S. forces are sealing off the city and the national forces are not allowing ambulances and other medical aid ... to enter the city," Yassin said. "I want the government ... to intervene."
Fired on building
American warplanes fired missiles on a building used by associates of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the third day of strikes in Fallujah, a hotbed of Sunni Muslim insurgents bent on driving coalition forces from the country. At least nine were killed, including two children, said Dr. Ahmad Thair of the Fallujah General Hospital.
Meanwhile, several explosions echoed across the Iraqi capital today, and smoke rose above the heavily fortified Green Zone, witnesses said. There was no immediate indication of what caused the blasts.
The attacks in Fallujah a day before raised plumes of smoke but left no extensive damage or signs of weakening the Sunni militants who have steadily expanded their control of this city about 30 miles west of Baghdad.
After Wednesday's attacks, bands of fighters, many wearing loose black pajama-like pants and T-shirts, lounged outside abandoned buildings facing the American lines, seeking to escape the intense sunlight of a day when temperatures topped 114 degrees.
Most hid their faces with Arab head scarves or ski masks. Some quenched their thirst with water from coolers beside them. Most appeared to be in their late teens or early 20s and 30s, but a few looked as old as 50.
Patrolled streets
Elsewhere in this city of 300,000, fighters patrolled the streets in new American pickups. One resident, 33-year-old Abu Rihab, said they were part of a 16-vehicle fleet commandeered between Jordan and Baghdad.
The Fallujah Brigade, which the Americans organized in May to maintain security after the Marines lifted a three-week siege, has all but disappeared, along with virtually all signs of Iraqi state authority.
Members of the Iraqi National Guard, which was supposed to back up the Fallujah Brigade, fled the city after one of their commanders was killed by insurgents for allegedly spying for the Americans. Local police operate under the tacit control of the militants.
Late Tuesday, U.S. jets dropped several bombs and tank and artillery units fired rounds into Fallujah in retaliation for militant attacks on Marine positions outside the city, said Marine spokesman Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson.
Lost control
Despite the formal end of the U.S. occupation on June 28, the interim Iraqi government has lost control over key Sunni Muslim cities such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra. The commander of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division said his troops and their Iraqi allies would regain control of Samarra before Iraq's general election expected in January.
Maj. Gen. John Batiste said he was confident that a combination of diplomacy, U.S. aid and Army intimidation would persuade the city's 500 insurgents to give up. Otherwise, he said, the Americans would use force.
However, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that it could be months before U.S. and Iraqi authorities are prepared to take those cities back.
Real power in Fallujah
In Fallujah, real power is in the hands of the "Mujahedeen Shura Council," a six-member body led by Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi, spiritual leader of the militants and the undisputed ruler of the city since May.
The mujahedeen run their own courts that try people suspected of spying for the Americans or other offenses. Abu Rihab said that since May, they have put to death about 30 people convicted of spying. It was impossible to confirm the figure.
Abu Rihab said those killed had confessed to the charges and that he had personally taken part in some of the interrogations.
Among those put to death by the mujahedeen was Lt. Col. Suleiman Hamad al-Marawi of the Iraqi National Guard. After al-Marawi was killed for allegedly spying for the Americans, the entire national guard contingent, estimated to number several hundred, fled the city.