Three British troops die in Iraq

Three British soldiers have been killed in a deadly Iraqi region to which their unit had just redeployed to free up US forces for an expected all-out offensive on Falluja, the country's most rebellious city.

US forces launched fresh air and artillery strikes on Falluja late yesterday after overnight air and tank attacks killed five people in the Sunni Muslim city, braced for assault now the US presidential election is over.

Further underlining the rapid deterioration in security in Iraq, Medecins sans Frontieres, one of the few remaining international aid groups, said it was quitting the country due the "extreme risk" to aid workers.

The British Black Watch soldiers' deaths are likely to stoke anger at Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to extend their tour of duty by a month and move them to a dangerous US-run area near Baghdad from their relatively safe southern base.

Details are sketchy, but junior defence minister Adam Ingram told parliament yesterday some soldiers had also been wounded.

Medecins sans Frontieres said Iraq had become too dangerous to work in and it would end all operations within a few days.

"It has become impossible... to guarantee an acceptable level of security for our staff, be they foreign or Iraqi," the agency's general director Gorik Ooms said in Belgium.

Another major aid group, Care International, also ceased its operations last month after the British-Iraqi woman running them was kidnapped. She is still being held by an unnamed group.

Iraqi's government and its US backers are battling to capture rebel-held cities such as Falluja and Ramadi and pacify the country to prepare for elections due in January.

But they face a mounting insurgency and kidnappings aimed at driving out US-led forces and foreign workers.

There was no immediate word on casualties on the latest US raids. Rebels responded with fierce mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks against US positions on the edge of the city, witnesses said.

US forces also launched air and tank attacks on Wednesday and into yesterday morning that witnesses said where the heaviest for several weeks. Hospital doctor Ahmed Mohammed said five people had been killed, including a woman and a child. All had been in a car hit in an air raid while trying to escape.

US artillery was back in action during the day, said a Reuters reporter with marines near Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, visiting Europe, has not publicly given the go-ahead to storm Falluja and the sister city of Ramadi, but the marines say they only need the order from him and newly re-elected US President George W. Bush.

Shi'ites in the slums of Baghdad's Sadr City, where anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has a strong following, said Mr Bush must keep his pledges to reconstruct Iraq and hold polls.

"It is Bush who destroyed this country and our city and he is obliged to rebuild them," said resident Qassem al-Kaabi.

Sadr, whose militia staged two uprisings this year, has recently moved towards joining the political process, ordering his Mehdi Army fighters to hand in their weapons in Sadr City.

People in Falluja said the prospect of four more years of Mr Bush depressed them.

"Choosing Bush creates a crisis for Iraqis and especially for Falluja because we believe he will continue his policy against our country and our city," said Mohammed Ali.

"His policy is based on violence and hatred against Muslims and Arabs," the 20-year-old student added.

A car bomb killed four Iraqis in al-Dujail, north of Baghdad, and another exploded in Iskandariya, 50 km south of the capital, but there was no word of casualties.