Abbas is a prosperous businessman who transports goods in refrigerated trucks to and from Jordan. His brother, the father of the slain girl, is there now on family business and unable to return because of the fighting.

Abbas hasn't told his brother that his daughter has died and asked that the family's full name not be used so that his brother does not find out through the media.

...

But he said the insurgents have wreaked mayhem as well.

"If you speak out against them and they know who you are, they'll attack your home," he said. "I'd like the guerrillas to stop the attacks, but nobody listens to me, I just hang my head and suffer."

Next door, the rumble of heavy military trucks can be heard.

When asked why he hasn't taken his family and fled the city, like almost a third of Fallujah's population, Abbas shrugs.

"We all live here and we will die all here," he said.

Meanwhile, at the Noman Hospital in Al-Adhamiya, a doctor I spoke with there (who asked to remain nameless) stated, "We are treating an average of one gunshot wound per day, which is something we never saw before the occupation. This is due to the absence of law in Baghdad. The Iraqi Police have weak weapons and nobody respects their authority."

He also stated that U.S. soldiers have come to the hospital asking for information about resistance fighters. He said, "My policy is not to give my patients to the Americans, or to provide them any information. I deny information to the Americans for the sake of the patient. I don't care what my patients have done outside the walls of the hospital. I do my job, then let the patient go."

"Ten days ago this happened -- this occurred after people began to come in from Falluja, even though most of them were children, women and elderly."

When asked if the U.S. military were bombing civilians in Falluja, he stated, "Of course the Americans are bombing civilians, along with the revolutionaries. One year ago there was no revolution in Falluja. But they began searching homes and humiliating people, and this annoyed the people. The people became angry and demonstrated, then the Americans shot the demonstrators, and this started the revolution in Falluja. It is the same in Sadr City."

...

He also believes that cluster bombs are currently being used in Falluja, based on reports from field doctors presently working there, as well as statements taken from wounded civilians of Falluja.

He also claimed that many of the Falluja victims he had treated had been shot with 'dum-dum bullets', which are hollow point bullets that are designed to inflict maximum internal damage. These are also referred to as 'expanding bullets.'

...

He also stated that during the first day of fighting in Sadr City two weeks ago, he received 32 dead bodies, mostly of women and children, and 90 wounded.

...

He continued, "My doctors in Falluja have reported to me that the Americans are using cluster bombs. Patients we've treated from there are reporting the same."

As violence and terror gripped the besieged town of Falluja in Iraq, Sadiyya, a pregnant mother of two, became increasingly desperate to get her children out to safety.

Doctors and relatives advised the heavily pregnant woman against travelling - but as the bombardment intensified she became determined to leave.

...

"I am too panicked about my children's safety," she told Islamic Relief staff as they helped her onto the back of one of their aid trucks.

The trucks were part of an Islamic Relief aid convoy that had just delivered emergency relief to Falluja. On the return journey the aid trucks were used to evacuate 30 families, mostly women and children, fleeing the violence.

...

Somewhere on the road to Baghdad, baby Mohammed was born and wrapped up snugly in a bright pink blanket.

...

As the truck carrying the new-born baby and 30 families entered Baghdad they were greeted by a crowd of people insisting they stop and inviting all the displaced families to become their guests.

...

Islamic Relief's offices have been flooded with donations of food and medicine from ordinary people in Baghdad eager to share whatever they can spare from the little they own.

Fallujan police will be responsible for probing the March 31 murder of the four contractors, which triggered the US assault on the city, a hotbed of opposition to the occupation of Iraq.

Previously, the coalition had been demanding that those responsible for the brutal murder be turned over to the marines.

This time we walk away from the hospital towards the marines, just us and the loudspeaker, no ambulance, to try and talk to them properly. Slowly, slowly, we take steps, shouting that we're unarmed, that we're a relief team, that we're trying to get supplies to the hospital.

Another two shots dissuade us. I'm furious. From behind the wall I inform them that their actions are in breach of the Geneva Conventions. "How would you feel if it was your sister in that hospital unable to get treated because some man with a gun wouldn't let the medical supplies through." David takes me away as I'm about to call down a plague of warts on their trigger fingers.

...

"Falluja people like peace but after we were attacked by the US they lost all their friends here. We had a few trained officers and soldiers from the old army, but now everyone has joined the effort. Not all of the men are fighting: some left with their families, some work in the clinics or move supplies or go in the negotiating teams. We are willing to fight until the last minute, even if it takes a hundred years."

He says the official figure is 25% of the town controlled by the marines: "This is made up of small parts, a bit in the north east, a bit in the south east, the part around the entrance to the town, controlled with snipers and light vehicles." The new unity between Shia and Sunni pleases him: "Falluja is Iraq and Iraq is Falluja. We received a delegation from all the governorates of Iraq to give aid and solidarity."

...

If people oppose the occupation, he says, how is it that the government could carry on and do it. He's genuinely interested but also sarcastic: surely the great liberators must be truly democratic, truly governing by the will of the people?

...

They took us because we were foreigners acting strangely in the middle of their war. They found out what we were doing and let us go. On the way out we were able to open up the checkpoint which meant people were able to get out of Falluja to safety. If that was all we did it would still have been worth it. But still in a quiet moment later on I whisper a thank you to the cheeky angels who look after clowns and ambulance volunteers.

Most of the wounded brought to the hospital, opened last April by the Jordanian government, have come from villages surrounding the Sunni Muslim city, including Qarna, the site of fierce fighting last week.

But the possibility of renewed fighting in Falluja remained real, as United States officials expressed skepticism that Iraqi civic leaders could actually persuade the insurgents to disarm.

"There is a big question about whether or not they can deliver, and that remains to be seen," Dan Senor, a spokesman for the American-led civilian administration, said Monday. "And we have been very clear that time is running out. There's only so much longer we can continue this process before we have to re-engage and reinitiate operations."

...

The agreement requires American forces to allow "unfettered access" to the city's main hospital, to shorten by two hours a nighttime curfew and to allow people who fled the fighting in the city to begin to return, at the rate of 50 families a day, starting Tuesday.

In return, civic leaders must persuade insurgents to hand over mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles, grenades and other weapons. Anyone who hands in weapons will be granted amnesty. The Americans are also demanding joint patrols with Iraqi security officials - many of whom refused to fight the insurgents - and a general reconstruction of Iraqi security organizations. The local authorities must also arrest or remove foreign fighters, who American officials say played a major role in the insurgency.

We spotted another group of fighters, and they waved us over. Muamar introduced me as his nephew and we asked them about the situation.

"We have a problem with the snipers," one fighter told us. "The tanks drive inside carrying snipers, and they enter empty buildings. Most people killed by them are civilians."

...

Another fighter told us that snipers had climbed up the al-Roda al-Muhammediya mosque, and fired on anyone who left the house, "We wanted to shoot him, but one of the residents said, 'No, this is a mosque.' We agreed however to kill him with an RPG-7 [rocket launcher] to stop him killing people." They claim to have hit their target, but in the process they damaged the mosque's light fittings.

...

"Our mosques are full of supplies and assistance which came from our brothers in Baghdad and elsewhere," Mishaan said. "The problem is that no one can go out to get them."

Mishaan introduces us to Abu Sayf, a retired military officer who is also the neighborhood "fidayee" or self-sacrificer who deliberately goes out to see which streets are safe to walk. "I decided to go out, because if we [are forced to stay] inside the house my children will die from hunger," he said. "I can't just keep on listening to them crying. Their voices wound my heart."