Iraqi government declares emergency rule

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government declared 60 days of emergency rule throughout most of the country Sunday, and U.S. troops seized a small section of territory in Fallujah ahead of an expected all-out assault on the guerrilla sanctuary. Militants dramatically escalated attacks, killing at least 30 people, including two Americans.\nU.S. troops who have sealed off Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, captured a small section of rebel-held territory, which included an insurgent medical aid station where several people were taken prisoner.\nAn AC-130 gunship, meanwhile, launched airstrikes after sundown as residents reported fierce exchanges of fire on the outskirts of the city.\nAs American troops began final preparations for battle in Fallujah, commanders warned them to expect the most brutal urban fighting since the Vietnam War. The U.S. command announced it had sealed off Fallujah and was "finishing final preparations for an assault" on the city.\nIraqi and U.S. officials would not say whether the emergency law decree or the move to capture territory in Fallujah marked the start of an all-out attack on the rebel stronghold.\nUnderscoring the country's instability, several heavy explosions thundered through the capital even as government spokesman Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb was announcing the state of emergency, which applies throughout the country except for Kurdish-ruled areas in the north.\nIraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who called a meeting Sunday with his defense minister, interior minister and provincial police commanders, said the state of emergency is a "very powerful message that we are serious" about reining in insurgents before elections set for late January.\n"We want to secure the country so elections can be done in a peaceful way and the Iraqi people can participate in the elections freely, without the intimidation by terrorists and by forces who are trying to wreck the political process in Iraq," he told reporters.\nInsurgents waged a second day of multiple attacks across the restive Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad, storming police stations, assassinating government officials and setting off deadly car bombs. About 60 people have been killed and 75 injured in the two days of attacks.\nAt dawn, armed rebels stormed three police stations in the towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing 22 policemen. Some were lined up and shot execution-style, police and hospital officials said.\nAttackers gunned down a Diyala governor's aide and two provincial council members south of Baghdad as they were on their way to a funeral in Karbala for a fourth colleague slain earlier this week.\nThree attacks on U.S. convoys in and around Baghdad killed two American soldiers and wounded five others Sunday, the military said. Residents reported grenades setting police cars aflame on Haifa Street in the heart of the capital.