Insurgents have taken over much of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and used it to launch attacks against US forces while terrorising the population with public beheadings.
A huge bomb killed five American marines yesterday and showered body parts on to rooftops, fuelling suspicion that armour-piercing technology is being developed and tested in Ramadi.
US troops recovered the remains and withdrew to their base outside the Arab Sunni stronghold, leaving masked gunmen to erect checkpoints and carry out what residents said was the latest of many executions.
A man described as an Egyptian spy was beheaded and his body dumped on a busy shopping street. Warned by the killers to leave it for five days, shoppers pretended not to notice the figure in the brown robe, its head resting on its back.
Four days ago two suspected Shia militiamen were beheaded in the marketplace in full view of traders, said a senior police officer who asked not to be identified. Two boys played football with one of the heads, he added.
Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, became an insurgent citadel soon after Saddam Hussein's regime fell two years ago. US and Iraqi forces claimed to have quelled it in February during Operation River Blitz, a sweep through restive towns and cities in Anbar province.
Falluja, 40 miles east of Ramadi, has been largely quiet since an offensive last November pushed much of the civilian population as well as rebels out of the city.
US forces tightly control movement to and from Falluja. But in other towns and cities in Anbar the guerrillas returned after the Americans withdrew and swept aside weak or non-existent Iraqi forces.
Americans have been forced to mount a fresh offensive in the northern town of Tal Afar.
They may soon do so in Ramadi: it was clear yesterday nobody was fully in charge. American troops guarded two bridges outside the city and every few entered the town in armoured Humvees. Each time streets emptied, leaving the convoy to patrol in near silence. Once it passed, people ventured outdoors again, including men in scarves and masks who wielded knives, assault rifles and rocket launchers.
Two cars with about 10 men set up checkpoints during the day, stopping and questioning anyone deemed suspicious. Several people were taken away, their fate unclear.
Civil and tribal leaders, including Sheikh Harith al-Dari, a spokesman for Sunni Arabs, had scheduled a meeting in the main mosque to discuss political developments in Baghdad. But insurgents cancelled the meeting, saying informal contacts with American and Iraqi officials had achieved nothing.
Residents said they were frightened of the insurgents but most dreaded a US-led offensive similar to that which flattened Falluja. They said the rebels were Iraqi Sunnis, not foreign Islamist radicals.
The Sunni minority, privileged under Saddam, bitterly resents the US presence and the political ascendance of Shias and Kurds.
An American sailor was shot dead in the city on Wednesday, hours before the five marines were killed. Witnesses said the bomb detonated at 2am yesterday just after a convoy crossed a bridge.
All Humvees are now armoured but there is suspicion that insurgents have learned to make "shape charges" which narrow the force of blasts to penetrate armour. Children played with the vehicle's charred debris.
Brigadier General Donald Alston, a coalition spokesman, played down the violence.
"I would not consider the situation in Ramadi to be anything extraordinary at this time," he said. "We continue to put pressure on the insurgency in all parts of Iraq, including Ramadi."
Residents said that in reprisal for their losses US troops fired grenades at a minibus as it crossed the bridge at 6am yesterday.
Eight girls and women died and a Jordanian man was injured, said hospital staff. It was not possible to verify the account. A US military spokesman said he had heard no such reports.
Elsewhere in the country, a suicide bomber killed at least eight police commandos and injured 25 when he rammed their truck in Baghdad.
In the northern city of Mosul US soldiers captured Muhammad Khalaf Shakar, who they said was the most trusted lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Shakar, also known as Abu Talha, reportedly wore a suicide vest 24 hours a day to avoid capture but when cornered in a hideout gave up without a fight, said US officials.
Meanwhile a US army sergeant has been charged with the premeditated murder of two US officers at a military base near Tikrit.
Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez, of the 42nd infantry division, was charged over the deaths last week of two officers, Captain Phillip Esposito and Lieutenant Louis Allen.
The deaths were initially attributed to a mortar blast.
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