Shaalan visited Iraqi soldiers expected to join U.S. Marines poised outside Falluja. "Today Falluja and tomorrow, when they run away like rats, we will chase them from house to house, from room to room," he said. "You are the defenders of democracy, you are the defenders of freedom. "But those killers and criminals who carry the banner of Islam, you will curse them and put them beneath your feet." U.S. troops enforced a round-the-clock curfew in Samarra, north of Baghdad, a day after bombings and attacks on police stations killed 34 people, mostly police, and wounded 49. Another policeman was shot in a separate incident in the city. The Samarra violence erupted barely a month after U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed the city to dislodge rebels in what was then seen as a model for assaults in Falluja and Ramadi. Two Turkish drivers were burned to death when rebels hit their fuel tankers with grenades near Samarra, police said. Syria, which Washington has accused of failing to stop militants entering Iraq, has reached a border cooperation deal with Baghdad, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said. --SP 0124 Local Time 2224 GMT
