US aircraft and artillery bombarded the Iraqi town of Fallujah yesterday in one of the heaviest assaults of the resistance stronghold since the US siege three weeks ago. In an intensive uses of firepower by US forces, artillery barrages were accompanied by the deployment of a heavily armed AC-130 gunship.

US commanders besieging the town said the assault was in response to several breaches of the local ceasefire. Tuesday night's bombardment was shown live on television networks around the world, including al-Jazeera, which is seen widely in Iraq and throughout the Arab world.

There is no word yet on casualties in the town, which lies 30 miles west of Baghdad. Guerillas in Fallujah didn't turn in their heavy weapons by yesterday's deadline, but the U.S. says it still doesn't plan on a full-scale attack.

It was the second time in two days that they had used the AC-130, a converted cargo plane nicknamed Spooky or Specter which spews concentrated cannon and machinegun fire over the ground. U.S. officers said an AC-130 killed some 64 Shiite militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al- Sadr at Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq.

A spokesman for Sadr told the London Guardian: "[The Americans] are agitating the situation. Mr Sadr demands that the occupation should end all over Iraq. The Americans hate him because he refuses to bargain with them."

*Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor correspondent. He joins us on the phone from Fallujah where he has been embedded with US troops for the past several days.

*Pratap Chatterjee, managing director of CorpWatch.org. He just returned from an extended period in Iraq.

To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for our new online ordering or call 1 (800) 881- 2359.