As the US forces pounded the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah with airstrikes and artillery fire Thursday, its residents were recalling the last battle against the US troops last April.

The defiant residents told various stories about what happened to the invading US soldiers last April when they fought the US troops in a bid to prevent them from groveling the city.

Some residents recalled "the weakness of the defeated US soldiers", who were pleading for food since the military supply line was cut off and many combat units ran out of basic necessities last April.

Zahra Ahmed, 45, said she was sure the US Marines would not win the coming battle against Fallujah because they were "so miserable."

"They stole my bread when I was busy cooking at the Tanour (oven)," the housewife recalled.

She said, "I was making bread in the garden of my house early one morning, when suddenly a US soldier - I don't know where he came from- jumped in and snatched my bread away and disappeared."

"I was afraid at the beginning, but then I felt amused because I realized that they were not the number one soldiers in the world asmany have said," added the middle-aged woman.

"Residents in and around Fallujah are talking about how weak and how coward the US soldiers were, maybe to prepare themselves for the foreshadowing major offensive," said Muhammed Yousif, 58.

Meanwhile, the US forces have reinforced in the past few weeks their positions around Fallujah amid an escalation of air and ground strikes against what they said rebel pockets in the city.

Mahmoud Khalaf, 54, believed that the US troops were trying to press on the residents by striking civilian targets. "They claimed that they were chasing Zarqawi, but actually, what they want is to force people to fight the insurgents instead of themselves."

The US military said recent strikes had "severely degraded" the Zarqawi group's capability.

Abu Musab al Zarqawi, allegedly an al-Qaida ally behind a series of deadly anti-US attacks, was said to be hidden in the restive city of Fallujah. The US military demanded the city to hand him over or face a major offensive that could cost many lives.

However, Fallujah residents repeatedly denied giving sanctuary to foreign militants including Zarqawi and said most of the casualties in nearly daily US raids were civilians.

Witnesses said US tanks and armored vehicles had cut off the main highway to Jordan that runs just north of Fallujah, as warplanes criss-crossed the skies.

Many families have already fled the city, fearing the much anticipated US major assault in a bid to bring the city under the interim government's control before elections due in January.

On Oct. 31, Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the peace talks with the tribal leaders in Fallujah had entered the final phase, saying "our patience is running thin and the window for peaceful settlement is closing."

Allawi, who has presided over the Iraqi interim government since June, said Iraqi forces would battle against rebels whose conflict with the US troops bathed Iraq in bloodshed, chaos and kidnappings.

The prime minister also renewed warnings that the city would have to face an all-out offensive unless Zarqawi and his followers were handed over to the government.

However, officials within his government fear any offensive on Fallujah could trigger a political disobedience that might lead to a Sunni Muslim boycott of the elections, thus nullifying the legitimacy of the country's first-ever democratic elections.