SCORES of suicide bombers have been primed to defend Falluja against an imminent onslaught by American and Iraqi forces, according to insurgents’ commanders planning a ferocious counterattack.

More than 100 cars laden with high explosives have been distributed throughout the city to be detonated when US marines mount a long-awaited ground offensive, they claim.

One commander said that 300 foreign fighters had volunteered for suicide bombings as American forces laid siege to the stronghold of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America’s most wanted man in Iraq.

Some would be used in 118 vehicles already rigged with explosives, he said; others would be waiting in booby-trapped homes for American and Iraqi soldiers hunting from house to house for al-Zarqawi’s fighters.

It was impossible to verify such claims, but as the only western newspaper reporter in Falluja last week, I saw thick black cables running across roads to the city centre, indicating the sites of “improvised explosive devices” — home-made bombs intended for American convoys.

A commander pointed out bridges, a railway track and several networks of narrow alleys in three districts of the city, saying they had been mined.

Snipers have been recruited by Falluja’s commanders from other cities and were already in position this weekend.

The insurgents said they had surface-to-air missiles with which to counter attacks by helicopter gunships.

They also claimed that a number of missiles had been tipped with deadly chemicals including cyanide. One said these would be fired at American forces from their rear.

“We have created a rear position, mainly outside Falluja, that will provide assistance to the fighters inside once the battle starts,” the commander said.

The battle for Falluja is regarded as a decisive test of the ability of American and Iraqi forces to quell the insurgents of the “Sunni triangle” to the north and west of Baghdad in time for elections in the new year.

Early yesterday a column of armoured vehicles moved into the outskirts in a manoeuvre designed to draw out rebels and provide fresh targets for the air power and artillery.

In the most intensive airstrikes on Falluja for months, a small Saudi-funded hospital and medical warehouse were hit, killing at least two people.

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