THE Iraqi interim Government declared a 60-day state of emergency yesterday as insurgents launched a bloody wave of attacks before American-led forces began their assault on the rebel city of Fallujah.

In a carefully planned campaign, guerrillas stormed police stations, capturing and killing 21 Iraqi police in a dawn raid, and carried out kidnappings, assassinations and car bombings across the Sunni Triangle. A group linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist, claimed responsibility last night for the attacks.

The escalation of violence came as 10,000 US troops massed outside Fallujah and as the city came under its heaviest aerial bombardment for six months. Five 500lb bombs were used by the Americans to destroy bunkers and weapons hideouts.

Declaring the emergency measures, to the echo of explosions in the background, Thair Hassan al-Naqib, the interim Government’s spokesman, said: “It is going to be a curfew. It is going to be so many things.”

He refused to say if the announcement heralded an imminent attack on Fallujah, but indicated that the city would be targeted with overwhelming force. “We have seen the situation is worsening in this area. Any obstacle will be removed,” he said. More details of the state of emergency will be released by Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, today.

The Fallujah assault is seen as a key showdown between US forces and the insurgents, who have killed thousands of Iraqi police and civilians, sabotaged the country’s oil infrastructure and all but halted reconstruction efforts. Without crushing the heart of the insurgency, pro-government forces believe, it will be all but impossible to hold elections, which are scheduled for late January but look increasingly doubtful — at least in Sunni areas — as the violence escalates.

Civilians were fleeing the half-empty city yesterday as the bombardment of Fallujah continued, with US and Iraqi troops awaiting orders from Dr Allawi to begin the operation.

“I cannot claim that entering Fallujah will end the terrorist attacks in Iraq,” Qassem Dawoud, Dr Allawi’s National Security Adviser, said, “but I can say that we will deal with a very big pocket of terrorism in Iraq and we will uproot it. This pocket forms the backbone and the centre for terrorists in other areas in Iraq.”

That escalation continued yesterday at dawn when guerrillas using bombs and machineguns stormed three police stations in al-Hadithah and al-Haqlaniyah, 220 km (137 miles) northwest of Baghdad. In the worst incident, gunmen stormed into the main police station in al-Hadithah, overpowering the police with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar bombs in a street battle that lasted 90 minutes. The gunmen took away 21 police captives and killed them in execution-style shootings.

They also killed Brigadier Shaher al-Jughaifi, head of security in western Iraq, in the attack on al-Haqlaniyah.

In a spate of other attacks, Shia officials said that 12 Iraqi National Guardsmen had been ambushed and murdered by militants dressed as policemen near al-Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, as they headed to the holy city of Najaf.

Three officials from Diyala province were shot dead on their way to a funeral in Karbala, and a car bomb exploded near the Baghdad home of Adil Abdel-Mahdi, the Iraqi Finance Minister, who was not at home at the time.

The attacks came one day after insurgents had stormed a police station in Samarra, which government forces had claimed to have “retaken” two months ago, killing 29 and wounding 40 in heavy fighting across the city.

The Tawhid wal-Jihad group led by al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Zarqawi’s terror group is blamed for many atrocities, including the murder of Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage.

American forces in Fallujah will fight alongside Iraqi troops, amid continuing concerns about the haste with which the Iraqis have been trained, their willingness to fight fellow countrymen and infiltration by militants.

They expect to face car bombs, snipers, rocket- propelled grenades, suicide attacks and booby-trapped buildings as they move through the city.

Fallujah residents who have moved to Baghdad say that many insurgents have already left the city, ready to strike elsewhere at American positions and Iraqis working with the pro-US Government.

“It’s a bit late for the Americans to conduct such a big assault on Fallujah. Most of the insurgents they are looking for are in Baghdad or somewhere further in the north,” said Marwan al-Ubeidi, 33, an engineer whose relatives in Fallujah moved to Baghdad two weeks ago to join him.

“It will not be that big a battle for the Americans. I’m sure they will enter it within a few days and they will announce a big success in their operations, which will in fact mean nothing because they will find no one there,” he said.

“But still this will be a symbolic victory for the Americans which might affect the entire process because Fallujah is a big symbol for the Mujahidin. If they take over Fallujah, the rest of the country will be much easier to take.”

The mood among ordinary Iraqis in Baghdad is of extreme apprehension, with many government workers intending to stay at home during the operation, fearing that they will be targeted.

Mohammed al-Jubouri, 24, who works for a Jordanian reconstruction contractor, said: “We think it’s better not to go to work. Every day there’s a senior policeman or government official killed. It’s out of control.”

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