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Reuters
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces have held up a Red Crescent convoy trying to reach civilians trapped by a 5-day-old U.S. assault in the Iraqi city of Falluja.
"We cannot let them go now because the road is not safe, it's full of explosives," U.S. Marine Sergeant J.C. Green told reporters on Saturday at a checkpoint near the city.
"We'll allow the convoy through once the road is safe, but it's going to take a while."
Green said troops would clear explosives from the road to make it safe for the convoy to pass, possibly within hours.
It would be the first humanitarian aid to reach Falluja since some 10,000 U.S. and 2,000 Iraqi troops launched a major offensive to oust Iraqi insurgents and suspected foreign Muslim militants from the Sunni Muslim city on Monday night.
The convoy of four ambulances and four trucks laden with food, blankets, first aid kits, medicine and a water purification unit left Baghdad earlier in the day.
Two explosions echoed from Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of the Iraqi capital as the convoy waited at the dusty checkpoint, eight km (five miles) southwest of the city.
"Conditions in Falluja are catastrophic," said Firdoos al-Abadi, spokeswoman for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad.
It is not clear how many of Falluja's estimated 300,000 people remain in the city and there has been no firm word on civilian casualties. More than half the population is believed to have fled before the ground assault began.
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