Baghdad – The US forces had to confront with rebels in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul. According to US officers in anonymity there were signs of insurgents resurfacing in other Sunni Arab strongholds across Iraq. They feel that some militants ran away from Fallujah before the battle started on Monday and slipped to Mosul, where a US soldier was killed on Thursday.

The US forces deployed their tanks at the center of the city with thousands of US troops, backed by Iraqi soldiers and made a terrible raid on house to house where the insurgents were supposed to be hiding.

According to marine spokesman Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert, "What is left (to take), comparatively speaking, is a small piece of what we started with. We control Fallujah in the sense that we are ever-present but it will still take some time to secure it," he told AFP, without giving a timeframe.

According to AFP Reporter, Fallujah has been turned into a ghost city; rebels are running about, having no place to hide. The buildings are more or less damaged badly, their doors and windows are either missing or blown out, power poles uprooted, and streets are full of garbage giving foul smell.

Major P.J. Batty as he scouted through Jolan with a unit of marines said that buildings are found mostly empty, "Two of the problems we are facing now are garbage and dogs," 

Corporal Will Porter said, “I am supposed to shoot into the houses before our troops get in. "It's extremely dangerous right now for the insurgents because they  have nowhere to go, they are just sitting in houses waiting for us to come in to capture them," he said.

According to press reporters, it was declared by the US forces on Thursday that 18 US and 5 Iraqi soldiers had been killed while 178 US and 34 Iraqi troops were wounded in the offensive. So far the casualties of militants are concerned, they said, more than 500 rebels were wiped out.