US planes step up Falluja attacks

Falluja has been under renewed US fire in recent days

US forces have been carrying out intense air and ground strikes on the rebel-held Iraqi city of Falluja.

Hospital sources say at least eight people have been killed and several injured in the strikes, which residents described as the heaviest for weeks.

They follow a call by Iraqi leaders for residents to give up the country's most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The strikes came as a suspected car bomb in Baghdad killed at least one and injured at least 10 people.

The attack took place near a police station in the southern suburb of Dura. It was not immediately clear whether it was a suicide attack.

US forces have stepped up security in Baghdad, after the first bombings inside the city's fortified Green Zone killed up to six people on Thursday.

In other developments:

• Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Nakib tells Iraqi police cadets training in Jordan that Iraqis could be responsible for their own security in a "very short time"
• The US government agrees to a special audit into the use of hundreds of millions of dollars of Iraqi oil revenues since the US-led invasion, the UN says.

'Targets of opportunity'

The US said the raids in Falluja were part of ongoing operations, not the start of an attempt to recapture the city.

Reports from the city say residents have begun leaving after one of the heaviest overnight bombardments for weeks.

US warplanes and helicopters launched sustained attacks on Falluja, 100km (60 miles) from Baghdad, late on Thursday, reportedly leaving at least five people dead.

Reclaiming rebel areas

Two more air strikes were launched on Friday morning. Medical sources said at least three people had died in these attacks.

At least 1,000 US and Iraqi ground troops were advancing towards the city, the AFP news agency said.

Senior Pentagon officials said they were exploiting intelligence and what they described as "targets of opportunity".

The US military said the air strikes targeted illegal checkpoints, a weapons cache and safe houses belonging to Zarqawi's group.

The attacks came hours after leaders from Falluja suspended peace talks with officials from Iraq's interim government.

Thursday's attack in Baghdad targeted a area previously thought as safe

The US and the Iraqi interim government have been trying to regain control of rebel areas before elections planned for January.

The main focus of resistance against US and Iraqi government forces has been Falluja, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city of 300,000.

US forces have staged weeks of what they call "precision strikes" against Zarqawi's fighters and other militant groups in the city.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said that Falluja would soon face a military onslaught unless residents gave up Zarqawi and other foreign militants.

Iraq's most wanted

But the city delegation said the government's demand to hand over Zarqawi was "impossible" to carry out.

Profile: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Even US forces had been unable to catch him, it said.

The Jordanian-born militant is thought to be based in Falluja.

The US has offered a $25m reward for his capture.

Zarqawi's group - which the US says is linked to al-Qaeda - has captured and killed hostages. It has also said it carried out Thursday's twin bombings in the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.

The attack was the first to occur in what is supposed to be the safest place in the Iraqi capital.

The US State Department said the bombs killed three US contractors - a fourth is missing, presumed dead. Two Iraqis also died.

In response to the attacks, the US military said security would be "significantly increased for an undetermined period" in the Green Zone and at other key locations in and around Baghdad.