in fighting in Falluja
US-led forces battled Sunni Muslim guerrillas and a spreading Shi'ite uprising today, as Iraqi anger was inflamed by a blast in the grounds of a mosque that witnesses said killed 25 people.
In the last three days 35 American and allied soldiers and at least 200 Iraqis have been killed in some of the heaviest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein nearly a year ago.
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The spiralling two-front war, with new flashpoints flaring across the country as backers of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr take up arms, is calling into question US plans to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30th.
US President George W. Bush - campaigning for re-election in November with opinion polls showing plunging support over Iraq - held phone talks with close ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but officials dismissed any suggestion of a crisis.
But some countries with troops in Iraq signalled the situation was growing serious. Ukrainian troops pulled out of the eastern city of Kut after clashes and regrouped at a base camp. Japan said its troops would suspend reconstruction work in Samawa, in the south, because of security concerns.
Battles raged between US Marines and guerrillas in the Sunni towns of Falluja and Ramadi west of Baghdad. A US military spokesman said there were five Marine "casualties" in Falluja, but it was not clear if any had been killed.
In Falluja, witnesses said the office of a Muslim organisation in the grounds of a mosque was hit by a rocket. Local residents said at least 25 people were killed. A US official at the Pentagon said a bomb had been dropped but "did not hit the mosque - that was made very clear to us".
Twelve Marines were killed yesterday in a seven-hour battle in Ramadi - one of the costliest single losses for US forces since the war that toppled Saddam began last March.
A US soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Baghdad today, bringing to 443 the number of US troops killed in action in Iraq since last year's invasion.
Since Sunday, clashes across Iraq have killed 33 US troops, a Ukrainian soldier and a Salvadoran soldier. The US military launched a major operation this week to secure Ramadi and Falluja, where four US private security guards were killed last week and their bodies set ablaze and mutilated by a jubilant crowd of Iraqis.
North of Baghdad, a US helicopter landed after being hit by gunfire. The US army said there were no casualties.
Followers of Sadr have fought running battles with US-led forces in the southern cities of Nassiriya, Amara, Kut and Kerbala. An aide to Sadr told a news conference some US soldiers had been captured in the fighting.
US military spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said US-led forces would destroy Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and that the cleric would be arrested.
Sadr has appealed to all Iraqis, whatever their religion, to help expel the US-led occupying forces. "This insurrection shows that the Iraqi people are not satisfied with the occupation and they will not accept oppression," he said in a statement.
Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani today condemned the way US-led forces were tackling the uprising and called for calm on all sides and an end to violence.
Mr Bush has vowed the campaign by Sadr's supporters would not derail Washington's plans. "We will pass sovereignty on June 30," he told a rally in Arkansas yesterday. "We're not going to be intimidated by thugs and assassins."
A US opinion poll on Monday showed support for Mr Bush's handling of Iraq at a new low of 40 per cent, with 44 per cent wanting US troops withdrawn.
Agencies