Nine Iraqis were killed and 38 wounded on Tuesday in sporadic fire between US forces and insurgents in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, hospital sources said.
"We have nine killed and 38 wounded today," said Mohammed Tabsh, a doctor at the main medical center of Fallujah, the Popular Clinic.
"The wounded include three women and four children," Tabsh told AFP. Tabsh said "most of the injuries were from tank fire and sniper fire."
A mediator negotiating a truce in this embattled city west of Baghdad, said Tuesday that half the Iraqis killed since the US offensive on Fallujah began nine days ago were women, children and elderly people.
Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, wanted by US-led forces in Iraq, said on Tuesday he was willing to die for his campaign to end their occupation.
But the radical preacher also appeared to leave the door open to negotiation, saying his only demand was to keep foreign troops out of the holy city of Najaf, where he himself is based.
"I am ready to sacrifice (myself) and I call on the people not to allow my death to cause the collapse of the fight for freedom and an end to the occupation," Sadr told Lebanon's al-Manar television, run by the Hizbollah group.
Sadr said he was in talks with Iraqi mediators to end the uprising - an apparent opening to a negotiated settlement.
But he rejected US demands that he disband his militia and said foreign troops should stay out of Najaf: "My only demand for the time being is the liberation of...Najaf and the withdrawal of occupation forces from it," he said.
About 40 hostages held: About 40 hostages from at least 12 countries are being held by insurgents in Iraq, officials said on Tuesday as a French journalist became the latest victim of a kidnapping campaign to break coalition resolve.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating the spate of abductions but reiterated there would be no negotiations with kidnappers pressing for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
"The number we think is approximately 40 hostages from 12 countries," Senor said when asked about the magnitude of the crisis, adding this was the number of "currently held" hostages and did not include those who had been released.
"We are making it clear that there will be no negotiations with hostage-takers and... that it is everyone's interest that these hostages be released as expeditiously as possible," he said.
But within hours the French CAPA television agency said one of its journalists, Alexandre Jordanov, 40, had been kidnapped in Iraq on Sunday while covering a firefight between US forces and insurgents. His cameraman Ivan Ceriex was also detained but later released, according to CAPA head Herve Chabalier.
The nationalities of most of the 40 hostages are unknown and Senor gave no details about them during a Baghdad news conference on Tuesday.
Other than the four Italians and the Frenchman, the hostages are known to include three Japanese, at least one American, a Canadian aid worker of Syrian origin and an Israeli Arab.
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