US troops fought to crush resistance in the Iraqi city of Fallujah on Thursday, but rebels hit back with an armed rampage in Mosul and a car bomb that killed 17 people in a crowded Baghdad street.Marines met little opposition in the former insurgent stronghold of Jolan, in northwest Fallujah, where guerrillas fired only one or two mortar rounds as tanks pushed through alleys, according to a witness. But a huge explosion erupted in the district after dark, sending a fireball into the sky, the witness said.Jolan, a stronghold for Saddam Hussein loyalists, had seen some of the fiercest fighting of this week’s US-led offensive.‘‘Things are going, I think, as planned. We’ve got about 70 per cent of the city under control,’’ US General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.But rebels managed to shoot down two US Cobra helicopters near Fallujah, US Military sources cited by Al Arabiya television said on Thursday. It gave no details. Troops flown to hospital
