Blair defends US onslaught

Tony Blair today made a staunch defence of the American military fightback in Iraq's worst hotspot despite criticism that civilians are being slaughtered in the offensive against insurgents.

As US forces continued their onslaught against militants in Fallujah, the Prime Minister said the troops were acting on behalf of the majority of ordinary Iraqis.

The conflict dominated Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons with both Tory leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy demanding to know whether more British troops would be sent to quell the rising violence.

Mr Blair repeated that the need for reinforcements was being "kept under constant review" and offered his full support for US tactics in Fallujah.

He told MPs: "I deeply regret any civilian death in Fallujah but it is necessary that order is restored ... in the end you cannot have a situation in which small groups of people defy the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people."

After more than a week of a tense stand-off, US warplanes today bombed areas in and around Fallujah. AC-130 gunships and heavy artillery took part in a two-hour overnight bombardment of a slum district said to harbour hundreds of rebel fighters. Witnesses spoke of the earth shaking as up to 10 bombs landed every minute. The scale of the onslaught suggests US commanders are likely to launch an all-out assault on the city this week.

Mr Kennedy had asked whether Downing Street had expressed its concern to President Bush about the more heavy-handed tactics. But Mr Blair said the US was justified in defending its own troops from attack. He stressed that more innocent Iraqis had died because of terrorists and insurgents than because of the coalition.

Mr Blair said no specific requests for Britain to send more troops had been made by the US. "We believe we have sufficient troops," he said.

He revealed that from tomorrow American troops would begin patrols in the city alongside Iraqi civil defence forces in an effort to show solidarity with the local population.

Tory MP Sir Peter Tapsell claimed the US move was an overreaction to the killing of American contractors.

Today a Ukrainian soldier was killed and two wounded when "bandits" attacked a patrol near the town of Kut. A Polish patrol was ambushed near Kerbala but suffered no casualties.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office advised Britons in Syria to take extra care after four people died in a terrorist attack in the capital Damascus. In Thailand at least 112 people, including five soldiers, were killed when militants stormed 15 police bases in the Muslim south.