Fierce clashes erupted in the besieged Sunni town of Fallujah on Wednesday despite a cease-fire, leaving nine insurgents dead and three US marines wounded and preventing hundreds of families from returning to their homes.
The battle, which lasted more than two hours, started at about 6:30 am (0230 GMT) in north-west Fallujah when between 20 and 30 fighters fired on the marines with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the US-led coalition said in a statement.
US forces called in helicopters during the clash, which occurred despite a deal Monday between the coalition and civic mediators in Fallujah to continue an uneasy cease-fire.
"Helicopter crews reported nine enemy killed and an unknown number wounded," said the statement. "Marines suffered three wounded, two of whom were evacuated."
The coalition said the clashes between US troops and the insurgents were threatening to derail peace initiatives in the city, with three breaches of the cease-fire in 24 hours.
The deal announced Monday was intended to allow for the return of thousands of families who early this month fled fighting in the city, which according to hospital sources killed some 600 Iraqis.
Earlier Wednesday explosions and gunfire were heard as only seven Iraqi families were allowed to return to their homes in this Sunni Muslim city which has been under US marine siege for more than two weeks, an AFP correspondent on the scene reported.
The marines let 50 families in Tuesday and pledged to allow another 50 to enter Wednesday and the same number the next day under an accord reached by US-led coalition officials and civic officials mediating an end to the fighting.
DANISH BUSINESSMAN FOUND DEAD: A Danish businessman kidnapped in Iraq last week has been found dead, the Danish foreign ministry said in Copenhagen on Wednesday.
The man was captured by unidentified attackers while travelling with an Iraqi driver and a Dane of Iraqi origin on a road near the village of Al Taji outside Baghdad. The two others were not taken hostage.
"The ministry was informed overnight by coalition authorities that the Danish national was found dead by Iraqi police on April 12, 2004," a foreign ministry statement said.
It said the Danish government had no further details about the man's death nor information about his killers. It was initially reported that the man was captured on April 13, but the foreign ministry now said that he was taken on April 11.
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