US forces ban men's entry or exit from Fallujah

Women and children will be allowed to leave the city but cannot return until "order is restored," the US military said, according to an AFP photographer with the troops.

"Attention, attention! All men aged between 15 and 50 are forbidden from entering or exiting (the area)," loudspeakers on top of US military vehicles declared in Arabic as they drove around the outskirts of the city.

"If they do, they will become a target," the military warned. "Only women and children are allowed to leave on condition that they do not return until order is restored."

About 20,000 US and Iraqi troops are outside the city poised for an expected full-scale assault to wrest control of the rebel enclave, which the American forces claim is an operating base for insurgents such as top al-Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The US military has sealed off all entrances to Fallujah, which lies west of Baghdad, and the surrounding areas.

Combat helicopters were flying over the city to detect anyone violating the rules, which were imposed after the interim government declared a state of emergency in most of Iraq on Sunday.

According to the US military, only 10 to 20 percent of Fallujah's 300,000-strong population remain in the city after a mass exodus by residents fearing a military onslaught.

Earlier US forces stormed into the western outskirts of Fallujah early yesterday, seizing the main city hospital and securing two key bridges over the Euphrates river in what appeared to be the first stage of the long-expected assault on the insurgent stronghold.

An AC-130 gunship raked the city with 40 mm cannon fire as explosions from US artillery lit up the night sky.