Fifteen people died when US jets spearheaded yet another assault on alleged al Qaeda fighters in Fallujah on Monday while Iraq's premier warned that key elections may be delayed in areas of unrest. Amid the country's relentless hostage crisis and desperate efforts by Paris and Rome to secure the release of four kidnapped nationals, militants said they had seized two Australian and two East Asian security contractors.
In the notorious Sunni Arab insurgent bastion of Fallujah, US warplanes launched the latest in a string of strikes on alleged bases of Iraq's most wanted man, suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who is accused of masterminding some of the deadliest attacks since last year's US-led invasion.
"Intelligence reports indicated that only Zarqawi operatives and associates were at the meeting location at the time of the strike," the US military said.
Zarqawi loyalists claimed responsibility for a string of missile attacks and suicide bombings that saw 45 people killed and scores wounded in Iraq on Sunday.
But an undertaker and angry residents denounced US claims that the victims were all Zarqawi aides.
"So far we received 15 bodies. Among them is an ambulance driver and two nurses, plus five wounded who were in the ambulance when it was bombed," said undertaker Falah Abdullah.
Three pick-up trucks carried the bodies to the cemetery, where a crowd of furious relatives washed and buried their loved ones, killed in the morning attacks, an AFP correspondent said.
Hamid Abbas, 32, said his windscreen smashed when a jet dropped a missile on the car in front.
"All of a sudden I heard a powerful explosion. A few seconds later, I saw the car on fire and charred bodies inside. People on the street were in a state of panic."
Medics said 20 people were wounded in the latest US strike on the militant stronghold since seven US marines were killed in a car bomb last Monday.
"They target peaceful families every day and every night. Then they say it's Zarqawi, weapons of mass destruction or terrorists they are after. Stop this destruction," said Sheikh Hamid Jaddoua.
In an interview published in European and US newspapers, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi admitted that some Iraqis might be unable to vote in nation-wide elections planned for January, despite insisting the polls would go ahead.
"If for any reason 300,000 people cannot have an election, cannot vote because terrorists decide so, then frankly 300,000 people... is not going to alter 25 million people voting," Allawi said.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed home Washington's belief that all would be well, despite insurgent control over Fallujah and other Sunni Arab towns.
"Most of the country would be in a satisfactory position for elections if they were being held next month. So we have time to deal with the challenges we face," he said.
In other violence Monday, one person was killed and three wounded in a US helicopter strike on a Baghdad commercial district, not far from the scene of heavy fighting between US troops and insurgents a day earlier, witnesses said.
A dead man was sprawled in the street, his stomach ripped to shreds by shrapnel. A child was among the wounded, AFP journalists saw.
Earlier, US troops patrolled nearby Haifa Street, where at least 13 people were killed in clashes between insurgents and US soldiers on Sunday, sparking a strict night-time curfew.
"Anyone spotted during this time will be considered a terrorist and lethal force will be used against them," a message in Arabic said.
In Kuwait, on an 11th-hour diplomatic tour to win the release of two Italian women hostages kidnapped in Baghdad, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called for their immediate freedom at the landmark Great Mosque.
An Islamist website published a purported ultimatum from the pair's captors Sunday threatening to kill the two 29-year-olds unless Rome withdrew its troops from Iraq within 24 hours.
"I seize this opportunity to call for the release of the two Italian hostages and all hostages in Iraq," begged Frattini.
Meanwhile, France prepared to dig in for the long haul as uncertainty persisted over the fate of two missing journalists more than three weeks after they were kidnapped.
Back in Iraq, a statement circulated in the Sunni insurgent bastion of Samarra in the name of the Islamic Secret Army said two Australians and two East Asians had been kidnapped. "We tell the infidels of Australia that they have 24 hours to leave Iraq or the two Australians will be killed without a second chance," said the statement from the army's Horror Brigades. Its authenticity could not be independently verified.
Australia took part in last year's US-led invasion and still maintains 850 troops in Iraq.