Dozens of Iraqis dead in Samarra attacks
Marines prepare for Falluja assault; likely biggest since Vietnam
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|  VIDEO |
 An exclusive look inside the embattled city of Falluja.
 U.S. forces pound Falluja with artillery fire.
 The wife of a Marine in Falluja prays he will come home safely.
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(CNN) -- Insurgents stepped up their attacks in the restive Iraqi city of Samarra on Saturday as U.S. Marines prepared for an all-out assault on the rebel stronghold of Falluja.
A health official in Tikrit said at least 34 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the violence in Samarra, a Sunni city that had been a center of support for Saddam Hussein. Tikrit is the capital of Salah ad Din province, where Samarra is located.
The 34 people were killed in a series of incidents that included car bombings and mortar attacks.
U.S. and Iraqi forces reported they had quelled the insurgency in Samarra in an offensive last month, but continued to fight pockets of resistance there nonetheless.
Last month's Samarra offensive was characterized as an example of the urban-like warfare expected in the larger-planned assault on Falluja.
Like Falluja, Samarra has been a tough challenge for U.S. and Iraqi forces, who have had to square off regularly against tenacious militants there. Both towns are in the troubled Sunni Triangle: Falluja is 30 miles (48 km) west of Baghdad and Samarra, 60 miles (96 km) north.
Other incidents of violence continued across Iraq -- in the cities of Mosul, Ramadi, Kufa, Baghdad and the province of Babil -- and included ambushes, shootings and bombings.
Amid the daily violence, the U.S. military has conducted artillery and air attacks on Falluja.
The city has a peacetime population of 250,000, but many residents have left the town in response to the attacks and the expectation of the assault. An estimated 50,000 people remain, including, the Marines believe, are about 3,000 hard-core insurgents.
The U.S. military and Iraqi government plan an information campaign to get women and children to leave the city, part of an effort to help guard civilians from the looming fight.
U.S. warplanes have bombarded targets to weaken the insurgency. Several explosions jolted the region early Saturday, with fireballs lighting up the nighttime sky and the sounds of AC-130 gunship cannon fire.
U.S. tanks were also engaged in northeast Falluja and artillery was fired at insurgent positions. Machine-gun fire and small-arms fire could be heard as well.
Allawi: Window closing for peace in Falluja
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi had told reporters in Brussels, Belgium, where he attended a European Union summit on Friday, that the "window is closing" for a peaceful resolution to Falluja.
"We hope they will come to their senses. Otherwise, we have to bring them to face the justice," Allawi said. "We intend to liberate the people and bring the rule of law to Falluja."
Allawi will decide when the assault will begin.
Commanders have said it will likely be the Marines' biggest combat operation since Hue City in Vietnam, when Marines, soldiers and South Vietnam forces fought the North Vietnamese Army in bloody urban combat in Vietnam's ancient capital.
Marine commanders in Iraq say the siege of Falluja is expected to be bloody.
The troops have been training in urban warfare techniques at a desert base camp near Falluja, getting ready for the possible fierce battle in the sprawling city.
U.S. authorities believe insurgents have prepared for the U.S.-led offensive by booby-trapping buildings and lacing roads with bombs, and that they will use car bombs and rooftop snipers to attack the U.S.-led forces.
The city also has scores of mosques that military officials say are being used as mujahedeen sniping positions, command and control posts and combat clinics.
Other developments
A suicide car bomb attack wounded three multinational force members on the dangerous road from Baghdad to the airport on Saturday. The attack car had two occupants. One was killed and the other seriously wounded, the U.S. military said.Insurgents struck a military convoy near Ramadi on Saturday, wounding 16 soldiers, a U.S. military official said. Ramadi, like Falluja, is in al Anbar province.The Base of Jihad, an Islamist militant group believed to be led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for an attack that killed three British Black Watch troops south of Baghdad Thursday. The claim, issued on several Web sites, cannot be independently confirmed.A Turkish driver was killed Saturday and two trucks were destroyed by a roadside bomb that exploded as a convoy passed on the main highway from Baghdad into Mosul, the U.S. military said.The bodies of 12 Iraqi civilians who had been kidnapped and then shot in the town of Latifiya were discovered Friday, Iraqi police sources said. Latifiya is about 30 miles south of Baghdad.CNN's Kevin Flower, Liz Neisloss, Ayman Mohyeldin, Robin Oakley, Karl Penhaul, Cal Perry, and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
