US forces freed Falluja’s chief negotiator yesterday after air strikes and a nine-hour battle blasted the rebel-held Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad. The interim Iraqi government has vowed to assault Falluja unless it hands over foreign militants led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America’s deadliest foe in Iraq, as part of a drive to pacify the country before elections in January. Insurgents trying to undermine the US-backed government struck at fledgling security forces again on Sunday night with a car bomb attack on a Baghdad cafe used by Iraqi police. The US military said eight people were killed, including a policeman, and 28 wounded, three of them policemen.

“God knows what happened to the issue of negotiations because I have been cut off from it for four or five days,” Falluja’s Khaled al-Jumaili said after being freed at 2 a.m. US marines detained the bearded cleric on Friday while he was taking his family out of the city for safety. Residents said Falluja was relatively quiet after fierce battles on Sunday, in which the US military said marines used tanks, artillery and air strikes against insurgents firing machineguns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

“After close air support was requested and several precision-guided munitions were dropped, insurgents were seen putting their mortar tubes into a taxi and pickup trucks then driving to a mosque,” a statement said. Marines did not fire upon the mosque, it said, adding that fighter planes had attacked more than 10 insurgent positions. Hospital officials said a child was among four civilians killed in the fighting. Twelve people were wounded.

“I think the residents of Falluja don’t want this sort of peace. They want real peace, not a peace that stabs in the back and strikes and destroys homes and kills women,” Jumaili said. Talks aimed at securing the return of Iraqi security forces to the city collapsed last week and suicide bombings inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, claimed by Zarqawi, set off a fresh round of US air raids on suspected militant targets in Falluja.

Jumaili belongs to Falluja’s Mujahideen Shura (council) of tribal notables and insurgent leaders which has ruled the city since a US offensive in April failed to dislodge rebels. The US military, and the interim government it supports, say Falluja has become a key base for Zarqawi’s network, blamed for Iraq’s bloodiest suicide bombings and hostage beheadings. Allawi said on Sunday he hoped an assault on Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, could be averted.

“We have extended an olive branch to the people of Falluja. We hope (they) will be able to work with the government to bring the terrorists to justice,” he said, referring to Zarqawi’s men. Jumaili said the hunt for Zarqawi was a pretext to attack Falluja, comparing it to US assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before last year’s invasion. Zarqawi, who has a $25 million US bounty on his head, has declared loyalty to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the first time, according to a statement posted on the Internet.

“We announce that the Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Holy War) Group, its prince and soldiers, have pledged allegiance to the sheikh of the mujahideen Osama bin Laden,” said the statement purportedly from Zarqawi’s group. Washington says Zarqawi is al Qaeda’s link to Iraq but the statement was the first by the group to announce its allegiance to bin Laden’s network, which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

The late-night blast at a Baghdad cafe near the Australian embassy appeared aimed at police officers eating there. It sent twisted metal, glass and body parts flying across the area. Gunmen killed nine Iraqi policemen returning from a training course in Jordan in an ambush south of Baghdad on Saturday.

The beheaded body of an Iraqi translator employed by US troops was found near Baiji, north of Baghdad on Sunday, police said. The body also had bullet wounds. In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed an Iraqi civilian on a bridge that leads into the fortified Green Zone that houses government offices and the US embassy, Reuters witnesses said.

<B>Alistair Lyon</B>