Over 50 Iraqis, 7 U.S. Soldiers Killed..

Press reports said earlier only a two-year-old child was killed and six more people wounded when shelling and gunfire hit their house in Fallujah.

"We were in our house when three shells fell on the neighborhood, including one that hit the first floor and went through to the ground floor before exploding," Hanan Abdel Baki, 27, herself wounded, told Agence France-Presse.

American military bombardment of Fallujah claimed at least 700 lives, mostly women and children , and injured more than 1500 others.

The American occupation forces admitted killing 36 people in Fallujah on Wednesday, April 21, three days after declaring a ceasefire to end the standoff of the besieged town.

More Deaths

The highest toll was from four explosions in Baghdad’s district of Sadr City where 14 Iraqis were killed and 36 injured, according to hospital records seen by an AFP correspondent.

"We received 30 people – including women, children – injured after the blasts," an official in Martyr Al-Sadr Hospital said. He gave no word on the deaths.

A U.S. military official said the explosions may have involved "mortars or missiles fired by the Mehdi Army itself," referring to the militia of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr.

However, local inhabitants told Aljazeera they heard warplanes hitting targets in the area after clashes with fighters near one of one of the mosques.

Moving further south, 14 people were killed and 12 others injured when the vehicle they were boarding was rocked by an explosive blast near Al-Haswa district while en route to Baghdad, Aljazeera said.

In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, five people were killed by a Polish patrol near the city.

Major Ralph Manos of the Polish contingent claimed they were fighters digging into positions and were armed with rocket propelled grenades, machine guns and AK-47s.

In another incident, four Iraqi policemen were killed when a booby-trapped car exploded near a U.S. military base in the northern city of Tikrit.

Twelve policemen and four civilians were also wounded in the attack, according to police.

Burnt Alive

In the holy Shiite city of An-Najaf, an Iraqi civilian was burnt alive in his vehicle after it came under fire near a U.S.-led military base, according to hospital sources.

Falah Hassan Abed, 27, was found in his burning Datsun pickup truck near the base located between Kufa and An-Najaf, said Mohammed Abed al-Kazem, a medic at Kufa’s Mid-Euphrates Hospital.

The base is manned by Spanish troops under Polish command.

A U.S.-led military spokesman said he had no information about the civilian but claimed the base was attacked by eight mortar bombs at about 1:45 am (2145 GMT Friday) and that troops returned fire.

Seven U.S. Soldiers

Meanwhile, seven U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks in northern and southern areas of Iraq by resistance fighters.

In Taji, just north of Baghdad, five American soldiers were killed and six more wounded, three of them critically, when a rocket was fired at their base at dawn Saturday, a military spokeswoman said.

The truck used to fire the rocket was destroyed by a U.S. military helicopter after the troops called for reinforcements, she said.

Two more U.S. soldiers were killed and one wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on a convoy near the southern city of Kut, police said.

"As the convoy was passing by, attackers fired rocket propelled grenades at it, killing two and injuring a third," confirmed Colonel Saad al-Jassani.

Two vehicles were also destroyed in the attack at Jannabiat al-Hay, 40 kilometers south of Kut, he said.

The latest casualties brought to at least 718 the American military death toll since the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in March last year, including 520 killed in action, according to an AFP count.