Attacks in the Iraqi city of Falluja are expected to rise over the next few months, a US commander says.

Speaking on Monday, Colonel Mark Gurganus, the commanding officer of US marines in Falluja, vowed that fighters would not be allowed to regain control of their former stronghold.

Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, was recaptured by US forces following a massive military incursion in November. Most of Falluja's 300,000 inhabitants fled at the time and about half have since returned.

With reconstruction of the city under way, more are now expected to return home. But the US military believes fighters are bound to come back with them.

Aljazeera.net spoke to a Falluja citizen who acknowledged efforts to bring Falluja residents back to the city. He complained that refugees are stuck in the middle between US forces and anti-US military fighters.  

With a referendum on the constitution set for 15 October and general elections due by 15 December, opponent fighters are expected to renew their attacks in the city to disrupt the political process.

Accepting that the city remained dangerous, Gurganus said the combined security force of marines, Iraqi army and a newly established police force was ready to tackle any kind of fresh rebellion.

Ongoing battle

US and Iraqi forces are continuing to battle fighters, mainly Sunni Arabs, who are against the Shia and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad.

The bodies of 20 people, one of them beheaded, some of them shot and others with their hands bound behind their backs with plastic straps, were found dumped in southwest Baghdad, police sources said. Witnesses saw the bodies being taken to hospital.

In Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official, Brigadier Salam Lutfi, was killed and two of his guards wounded when armed men opened fire on his car on a motorway in eastern Baghdad, a police source said.

Two bomb attacks on Sunday killed five US soldiers during patrols in Baghdad, a US military statement added.

One soldier was killed and two wounded when their patrol hit a landmine in al-Dura, south of Baghdad.

Four more soldiers were killed when their patrol struck a roadside bomb in southwest Baghdad.

In Kirkuk, one Iraqi soldier was killed and six injured when a roadside bomb struck near their patrol in Tuz Khurmatu, 60km south of Kirkuk, a police source said.

Troop reduction

The US Defence Department has secret, detailed plans for sharp reductions in the number of soldiers on the ground in Iraq, Newsweek magazine reports in its upcoming issue.

Pentagon planners were targeting troop withdrawals to lower the US forces in Iraq from about 150,000 to 80,000 troops by the middle of 2006, according to two unnamed Pentagon officials cited by the magazine.

Further withdrawals would lower troop levels by the end of 2006 to the range of 40,000 to 60,000.

PHOTO CAPTION

Children and US Marine at a checkpoint in the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq in March 2005.(AFP)