BAGHDAD -- Medical teams and convoys from the Iraqi Red Crescent are expected to enter the embattled city of Fallujah Saturday carrying urgent humanitarian assistance.

The International Committee of the Red Cross pleaded with the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Muslim gunmen who have been battling for seven days for control of the Sunni city to cease fire in order to allow rescue teams to evacuate injured people.

An estimated 50,000 civilians, including women and children were trapped in the city after the majority of its population of 300,000 fled to nearby makeshift camps.

ICRC spokesman Ahmed Rawi said poor conditions prevail in the city due to shortages of food and clean water, as well as medical equipment, in addition to power outage.

Rawi said the ICRC has been in contact with the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led multinational forces to obtain permission to send rescue teams into the city and evacuate wounded people who could not be treated locally due to shortages in medical supplies.

In the meantime, fighting continued unabated Saturday in Fallujah as U.S. and Iraqi forces faced resistance pockets in the neighborhoods of Golan and al-Wahda in the northwestern part of the city.

U.S. forces say they have gained control of approximately 80 percent of the city in which Iraqi insurgents and followers of Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, the suspected leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, have been defying soldiers.

Copyright 2004 by United Press International