BAGHDAD, Iraq – American warplanes pounded Fallujah with missiles yesterday as insurgents fought running battles with coalition forces in the volatile western Iraqi city.

Seven American Marines were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq’s Anbar province, a vast region encompassing the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the military said today.

It was unknown whether the deaths yesterday were connected to heavy fighting in Fallujah. American warplanes pounded the city with missiles as insurgents fought running battles with coalition forces. The seven members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died while conducting “security and stabilization operations” in Anbar, the military said in a statement.

The statement gave no other details about the deaths, saying the release of more information could place American personnel at risk. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of their families.

Meanwhile, several detained leaders of Saddam Hussein’s regime began refusing meals in apparent protest against their upcoming trials, American military officials and a lawyer said. Former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein was not among them.

In Jordan, Saddam’s attorneys argued ahead of today’s first anniversary of his capture that the former president was being held illegally by American and Iraqi authorities.

“It was more of a forced abduction that later became compulsory concealment and solitary confinement, acts rejected by all international conventions,” said a statement released yesterday by the team, which cited human rights conventions Washington allegedly had violated.

Saddam’s lawyers were appointed by his wife, Sajida, but have not been able to contact their client. None were at his side when he was arraigned July 1 in Baghdad on preliminary charges, including killing rival politicians, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait in 1990, and suppressing popular uprisings in 1991.

The military said yesterday a soldier was killed a day earlier in a roadside bomb blast in the capital’s northern suburbs. Three other soldiers also were wounded in the ambush.

An American Marine died in action yesterday in Anbar province, a vast region comprising the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Separately, Iraq’s postwar political hopefuls continued jostling for position ahead of January 30 elections, the first such polls to be held since Saddam’s overthrow. Two moderate, mainly Sunni Muslim parties announced they would field slates for the polls, indicating an apparent strengthening of support for the vote among the religious minority, despite calls from some Sunni politicians for a boycott.

Sunnis traditionally have enjoyed significant privilege in Iraq, but have lost their political ascendancy since Saddam’s fall. The country’s majority Shiites – numbering 60% of the population – are expected to exploit their weight of numbers and dominate the post-election legislature.

“They [the Sunnis)] realized that there was no chance for postponing and that it’s better to participate,” said a leader of the Coalition of Iraqi National Unity, which is fielding a 275-member slate for the polls, Nehro Mohammed Abdul-Karim Kasnazan.

The Constitutional Monarchy Movement, a moderate Sunni-dominated group seeking the restoration of a constitutional monarchy, also announced a list of 275 election candidates. The slate is headed by Sharif Ali, a cousin of Iraq’s last king – who was killed in a 1958 military coup, and includes Kurds and Shiites.