US and Iraqi forces said they had captured almost three quarters of Fallujah, the bastion of Iraqi Sunni Muslim insurgents, on Wednesday and aimed to control all of the city by Saturday despite strong resistance from the insurgents.
The fierce three-day-old battle continued into Thursday night, moving from sheer US firepower on suspected insurgent fighting positions to house-by-house battles to secure neighborhoods from north to south, news reaching in Baghdad said.
As night fell, fierce fighting broke out in the Jolan district of northwestern Fallujah, where the heart of the resistance is thought to be. Fires were seen throughout the war-torn streets, witnesses said.
US Marines backed by Iraqi troops started an all-out offensive late Monday in a bid to regain control of the rebel hub of Fallujah as part of government efforts to pacify security situation ahead of the January elections.
The Pentagon said Thursday that the assault on Fallujah has been "very, very successful" and "hundreds and hundreds of insurgents" have been either killed or captured.
"We hope that in the next few days we'll be able to return Fallujah to the citizens there without the intimidation that the insurgents brought," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said on CBS's " The Early Show."
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was on a Latin- America tour in El Salvador, confirmed Thursday that "hundreds" of insurgents have been killed in Fallujah as US and Iraqi troops sweep through the besieged city.
Admitting that some insurgents had probably escaped the attack, Rumsfeld said that "we also know that there are a number of hundreds (of rebels) that didn't, and have been killed," adding that "others have been captured."
However, Rumsfeld declined to put a specific number on the dead.
Meanwhile, 18 US troops and five Iraqi soldiers have been killed and 178 Americans and 34 Iraqis wounded in action since the start of the battle on Monday, commander of the operation Richard Natonski told reporters in Fallujah.
In an apparent effort to ease pressure on their besieged allies in Fallujah, insurgents mounted major attacks in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city 354 km to the north.
Rebels attacked nine police stations and battled US and Iraqi troops around bridges across the Tigris River in the city. The US military also said it attacked suspected rebel targets in Mosul with air and ground fire on Thursday.
Violence also flared in the refinery city of Baiji in the south where gunmen attacked the local administration building.
In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded Thursday moments after a US patrol passed on Saadoun Street, killing 17 bystanders and wounding 30.