US tanks shelled and machinegunned rebels still holding out in Falluja yesterday in fighting that was preventing an Iraqi Red Crescent convoy from getting aid to civilians trapped in the city for six days.

A Reuters reporter with the aid convoy at the main hospital near the Euphrates on the city?s western edge said he could see tanks firing cannons and heavy machineguns at rebel targets in a district just across the river amid the thud of mortars.

The fighting erupted even though a Marine officer said earlier that resistance in a last rebel redoubt was dwindling. ?Two days ago they were coming out and fighting us. Last night they were running. It looks like we are about to break their will?, said Captain Robert Bodisch, a US tank company commander. ?I don?t think it will be long now.?

Fighting was focused mainly on the Shuhada district, viewed by US forces as a stronghold for foreign fighters led by Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Residents said US warplanes and artillery were bombarding targets in Shuhuda and the northwestern Jolan district.

Some 10,000 US and 2,000 Iraqi troops began blasting their way into Falluja last Monday and a senior Iraqi official said more than 1,000 had been killed in the offensive. The US military says 22 American and five Iraqi troops have also died.

Seven Red Crescent trucks and ambulances reached the hospital on Saturday, but have yet to cross the Euphrates into the main part of the city to reach desperate civilians there.

?Our situation is very hard?, said one resident. ?We don?t have food or water. My seven children all have severe diarrhoea. One of my sons was wounded by shrapnel last night and he?s bleeding, but I can?t do anything to help him.?

The man, who gave his name only as Abu Mustafa, said he had seen US troops and Iraqi national guards in his street as explosions rang out. ?There were bodies lying in the street.? Abu Mustafa said he knew of six families nearby in a similar plight, before breaking down in tears. ?We are still fasting, though it is the Eid (end of Ramadan feast) today. Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar (God is great)?, he sobbed.

Red Crescent convoy leader Jamal al-Karbouli said he was still waiting for US permission to enter the city proper. ?If we have any hope of entering, we will wait here, even for another night if necessary?, he said. ?Otherwise we will return to Amriyat al-Falluja and distribute the goods there.?

?Clear-cut victory?

At least 10,000 civilians from Falluja took refuge in nearby towns like Amriya and Habbaniya before the offensive. It is unclear how many of Falluja?s 300,000 people remain, but about half are thought to have fled before the main assault began.

There has been no firm word on civilian casualties. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Saturday there had been ?no casualties? among civilians in what he called a ?clear-cut victory over the insurgents and the terrorists?.

Iraq?s US-backed interim government has vowed to crush a widespread insurgency before planned elections in January. President George W. Bush said violence could worsen before the polls because guerrillas would grow more desperate. ?The success of democracy in Iraq would be a crushing blow to the forces of terror, and the terrorists know it?, he said.

The Falluja offensive has fuelled violence across Iraq?s Sunni Muslim heartland, especially in the northern city of Mosul where an uprising has left gunmen still roaming some districts. The US commander in the north, Brigadier General Carter Ham, told Reuters all nine police stations overrun and burned last week were back in the hands of US or Iraqi forces.

But he said guerrillas had stolen police guns, flak jackets and vehicles, creating new security dangers. ?I?m certain the problems are not over yet?, Ham added. Allawi acknowledged there were troubles in part of Mosul, saying Iraqi police and special forces had been sent there.

Insurgents mortared a police station in Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, killing one policeman, yesterday, police said. Three militant groups, including one led by Zarqawi, vowed in a video to take the fight in Falluja to all corners of Iraq.

ASSASSINATION

Gunmen kill Iraqi Communist Party official

■ Gunmen have ambushed and killed a senior official of the Iraqi Communist Party in northern Iraq, a colleague said. Four cars followed Waddah Hassan Abdel Amir, a member of Iraq?s provisional national assembly and two of his aides, from the city of Khalis and attacked them on Saturday evening on the road to Arbil, Kurdistan Communist Party official Ali Zanka said. He said several others were hurt in a car crash caused by the attack. Insurgents bent on undermining Iraq?s American-backed interim government have carried out a campaign of assassinations against public officials they see as collaborating with the US presence in the country.

<B>Michael Georgy

Omar Anwar</B>