At least 450 Iraqis died and more than 1,000 were wounded in the five-day assault by US marines on the Iraqi town of Falluja, according to Dr Rafi Hayat, the director of the town's main hospital. Lara Marlowe reports from Baghdad
The announcement came as more US soldiers died in violence in Iraq and nine foreigners were killed in an ambush west of Baghdad. Mr Paul Bremer declared a "unilateral suspension of operations" in Falluja early yesterday by the First Marine Expeditionary Force to allow relief supplies to reach the town of 300,000, and to enable residents to care for the wounded and bury their dead.
Mr Bremer said that coalition forces would hold a meeting with "Falluja leadership" and the US-appointed Governing Council, but that operations would resume if results were not satisfactory.
The attack on Falluja, which was intended to avenge the killing and mutilation of four US security guards on March 31st, has been criticised as excessive and disproportionate.
The Russian foreign ministry yesterday called for a halt to military activity in Iraq, saying it was "vital to halt a looming humanitarian crisis in Iraqi cities and to prevent any further escalation of the conflict in Iraq".
Washington's Iraqi allies also criticised the offensive. Mr Adnan Pachachi, a respected former foreign minister and member of the Governing Council, said it was illegal.
"We are seeing the liquidation of a whole city," another council member, Mr Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, told Al Jazeera television, threatening to resign.
Referring to the escalation of violence, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said: "There is no doubt that the current situation is very serious. And it's the most serious that we have faced."
Violence yesterday shifted from Falluja to the highway between Falluja and Abu Ghoraieb, on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Insurgents attacked a fuel convoy and burned 10 tanker trucks. An AFP journalist said there were hundreds of men armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades on the highway. "The place was swarming with Mujaheddin," said Peter Cave of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Nine foreigners died in the attack on the convoy, and the rebels claimed they seized four Italian and two American prisoners.
A Reuters journalist who saw two Italians held in a mosque near Abu Ghoraieb said one was wounded in the shoulder and both were weeping. The Italian government said last night none of the Italian citizens known to be in Iraq was missing.
Peter Cave was stopped on the highway by fighters wearing red and white keffiyehs, shouting, "Here is our American prisoner." ABC filmed a fair-haired man in the back seat of car. He appeared to be a private contractor and one leg of his jeans was blood-stained.
The British Foreign Office confirmed that a former paratrooper, Mr Michael Bloss, was killed. He is believed to have been a private security guard.
Iraqis took three Japanese, two Palestinians, one Briton and one Canadian hostage on Thursday. The "Mujaheddin Brigades" have threatened to burn the Japanese alive if their government does not agree this weekend to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
The US military said last night at least two US soldiers and a civilian truck driver were killed north of Baghdad yesterday and three more Marines were killed west of Baghdad on Thursday.
In the south, fighting between Polish and Bulgarian troops and Shia fighters loyal to Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr continued in Kerbala, where 15 Iraqis were reported killed. The US said it re-took Kut, two days after it was abandoned by Ukrainian troops. There were also clashes in Baqouba and Mosul.