IRAQ - Nov 7 - US Warplanes Attack Rebel-Held City Of Falluja.

US warplanes pound the rebel-held city of Falluja as heavy fighting starts between ground troops and insurgents on the outskirts. US troops swept toward strategic bridges, hospitals and other objectives, according to a NYT reporter embedded with the American forces, in what appeared to be the first stage of the long-expected invasion of the city. Troops were on the move to the west and south of Falluja, just across the Euphrates River. After two hours of steady pounding by American guns, tanks, Bradley armoured vehicles, artillery and AC-130 gunships, at least one objective - a hospital less than a mile from downtown Falluja - was reported to have been secured by US special forces and the Iraqi 36th commando battalion. The interim PM Iyad Allawi, had earlier declared a state of emergency. "We declared it today and we are going to implement it whenever and wherever it is necessary", he said after meeting his defence and interior ministers and provincial police chiefs. The move, after Nov 6 violence in Falluja and other Sunni Arab cities, may cast a shadow over elections due to be held in less than three months' time. It comes just five days after the re-election of Pres Bush, who sought to emphasise the imminent restoration of democracy to the country during the campaign. Both the UK and US governments are determined that violence in Iraq should not dictate the political timetable, in spite of acknowledging the problems of holding a poll if unrest persists. The Foreign Office said the potential imposition of a state of emergency was a "matter for the Iraqi interim government". But it implicitly backed Allawi's move by stressing that the planned transition to democracy could take place only in "an Iraq free from terror and intimidation". Allawi's spokesman said the state of emergency applied in all governorates outside the comparatively peaceful Kurdish north, and would last for 60 days. The measures were intended to stop insurgent attacks such as the bombings that killed more than 50 people in the preceding two days. According to Iraq's National Safety Law, passed in July, a state of emergency empowers the government to impose curfews, tap communications, restrict movement and assembly, freeze assets and take other measures to combat political violence. The spokesman said Allawi would explain today which of the measures would be put into effect. Emergency law measures are subject to judicial review, and the prime minister is forbidden to use the law to cancel or delay elections, scheduled for January. Allawi did not connect the state of emergency to the imminent assault on Falluja but said the "window was closing" on opportunities to resolve the stand-off in the rebel-held town.