News Outside the U.S.

From Australia: THOUSANDS of Sunni and Shiite Muslims forced their way through US military checkpoints Thursday to ferry food and medical supplies to the besieged Sunni bastion of Fallujah where US marines are trying to crush insurgents.

Troops in armoured vehicles tried to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the town located 50 kilometers west of Baghdad.

But US forces were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops.

From Another Aussie Report: Shiite councilmember Abdul-Karim Mahoud al-Mohammedawi visited al-Sadr's office in Najaf and announced he was suspending his membership until "the bleeding stops in all Iraq." Another member, Ghazi al-Yawer, said he would quit if the Fallujah talks launched Friday fell through.

One of the strongest pro-US voices on the council, Adnan Pachachi, denounced the US seige. "It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal," Pachachi told Al-Arabiya TV.

For the fifth day, US forces were fighting on two fronts in Iraq.

US troops drove into Kut before dawn Friday, pushing out members of al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia that had seized the southern textile and farming centre this week after Ukrainian troops abandoned the city under heavy attack.