Iraq Continues to Fester

Fallujah and Najaf

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships firing heavy machine-guns, rockets and cannons hammered gunmen as a truce in besieged Fallujah was strained by increasingly intense battles. With more troops killed, April became the deadliest month for American forces since they set foot in Iraq.

Elsewhere, a 2,500-strong U.S. force massed on the outskirts of the Shiite holy Najaf for a showdown with a radical cleric, raising fears of a U.S. attack on the city that would outrage the nation's relatively pro-U.S. Shiite majority.

Read previous thread about Bush's missionary world view and guess how this will end (with hostages caught in the middle). You may not use imagery from Norse or other non-Christian mythology.