Many Killed in US Air Strike on Falluja

Loud blasts were heard throughout the city as residents said a neighbourhood on the northern side of the city came under attack late on Friday.

Two houses were reported to have been flattened in the al-Shurta district.

Dr Ahmad Tahir at Falluja’s general hospital said seven dead, including children and women, and 13 wounded were received at the hospital.

Another doctor, Muhammad al-Dulaimi, at the same hospital earlier said the dead were civilians.

An AP photographer saw the bodies of women and children being removed from the rubble of the homes.

Relentless bombing

The US military said it "conducted a precision strike on yet another confirmed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist site in northeast Falluja".

The renewed aerial bombardment comes amid a week of relentless bombing of the Iraqi city, home to about 350,000 people.

At least four people were killed and 10 others injured when US warplanes targeted the al-Askari and industrial neighbourhoods near the main highway east of the city on 28 September.

Mahmud al-Jirisi, Falluja city commissioner, told Aljazeera on 27 September that US air strikes were killing only civilians.

"The city houses large numbers of people," he said.

"They cannot all leave the city due to their huge number and miserable living situations. They cannot leave and be a burden on other families."

Civilian casualties

At least 15 people were killed and 25 wounded on 25 September in what US military authorities are calling a precision strike targeting "terrorists meeting in the Jolan district of Falluja".

"The last bombing targeted a residential area and casualties were all civilians," al-Jarisi said.

US military authorities, however, insist that no civilians were in the targeted areas, based on intelligence information they received.

"Intelligence sources indicated that approximately 10 terrorists were meeting at this location to plan operations targeting innocent Iraqi civilians and multi-national forces," said a US military statement on the strike carried out at 1800 GMT on 25 September.