Mosque bombed as troops mired in street fights

US MARINES fired a rocket and dropped a 500-pound laser-guided bomb on the Fallujah mosque compound yesterday as they found themselves mired in street battles that have left almost 300 people dead in three days of the type of warfare that generals had dreaded.

The Marines had waged a six-hour battle around the mosque with the militants holed up inside before a Cobra helicopter fired a Hellfire missile at the base of its minaret, and an F-16 dropped the bomb, said Marine Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne.

The fight began when a Marine vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from the mosque, wounding five Marines, Byrne said.