U.S. forces launch new assaults in Falluja
At least eight Marines killed in fighting west of Baghdad
 |  Marines participate in a briefing before starting a mission outside Falluja on Saturday. |
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 Land and air forces launch an assault on insurgents in Falluja.
 At least eight U.S. Marines die west of Baghdad.
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FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces launched renewed attacks against Falluja on Saturday, striking targets from the air and clashing with militants on the southeastern edge of the city.
The battle began the same day that eight Marines were reported killed during intense fighting in nearby areas.
Jets and helicopters have pounded Falluja for weeks to lay the groundwork for a possible invasion.
The offensive is intended to crack down on insurgents in Falluja and the surrounding Anbar province, part of the so-called "Sunni Triangle" west of Baghdad, a focal point of anticoalition violence.
The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force reported at least eight Marines were killed and nine others wounded in a single incident in Anbar province, though not in Falluja itself. Officials said the casualty figures were preliminary.
The incursion against insurgents controlling Falluja followed an overnight aerial bombardment against targets in eastern and northern sections of the city that killed five Iraqis, according to hospital sources.
Falluja has been in insurgent hands since April, when Marines were ordered to withdraw from the city's perimeter. Responsibility for the city was given to a squad of former Iraqi soldiers from the city and the police force.
The city remains home to a terror network run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who has sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Al-Zarqawi is believed to have masterminded the beheading of American Nicholas Berg, as well as attacks on United Nations and Red Cross targets in Iraq.
In Friday's offensive, U.S. forces dropped 500-pound bombs on two weapons caches in northern Falluja, officials said. Strikes were also launched on the eastern part of the city, in the Sinai and Askari districts, according to CNN personnel in the area, though a Marines spokesman had no information on those strikes.
Artillery and airstrikes were also employed in other parts of the city, officials with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force reported. Insurgents launched mortars at a Marine unit near southeastern Falluja. The Marines responded with what a Marines spokesman at Camp Falluja described as the longest barrage of artillery fire on insurgent positions in weeks.
At about 4 p.m. (9 a.m. ET), Marines also dropped air ordnance on an insurgent position in southern Falluja to support a group of Marines engaged on the ground, the spokesman said.
No Marines were wounded in those incidents in Falluja, the spokesman said.
Other developments
The Al Arabiya television network said Saturday it received an official statement from a little-known Iraqi militant group, the Twentieth Brigades, denying reports that it attacked Al Arabiya's office in Baghdad. An Islamic Web site published another statement earlier Saturday, in which the group allegedly took responsibility for the car bomb attack that killed at least five people and wounded several more.Witnesses said Iraqi forces fired randomly and threw hand grenades, hitting three minibuses and three vans, after a U.S. convoy came under attack near Haswa, a town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Iraqi capital, the AP reported. A hospital official said at least 14 people were killed and 10 others wounded, according to the AP.Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura confirmed that the headless body found Saturday in Baghdad is that of Japanese hostage Shosei Koda. Koda was kidnapped Tuesday, and his captors threatened the next day to behead him unless Japan pulled its troops out of Iraq. (Full story)A British soldier from the Black Watch battle group redeployed from the southern city of Basra to an area outside Baghdad died of injuries Friday in a noncombat vehicle accident, a British army spokesman said. About 850 soldiers from the Black Watch regiment have redeployed to an area 15 miles outside of Baghdad to free up U.S. troops there for operations against militants.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
