Children wounded in US 'precision' bombing

US FORCES launched a "precision attack" yesterday against a suspected gathering of insurgents outside a house in the volatile city of Fallujah, the US military said.

There were no deaths but five civilians, including three children, were wounded, said a local hospital official. The US military did not indicate if there were any casualties. The air attack came after a collision between a tank and a van near Baghdad, killing nine people and injuring 10 others, the US military said.

Associated Press Television News footage showed the twisted wreckage of a minibus and several bodies covered by blankets. A small child's orange dress was found amid the wreckage and pools of blood covered the road.

The van tried to pass another vehicle and collided with the tank, said a coalition spokesman. There were no US casualties.

Also yesterday, the military announced the deaths of two US soldiers in a roadside bomb attack near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. A third soldier was wounded in the blast.

A US military official said the bombing was south of the city, the scene of battles earlier this week that left four Iraqis dead and five wounded, a hospital official said.

In other violence, one person was killed and nine others wounded when another roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad's northern suburb of Toubechi as a bus passed by.

Gunmen also assassinated a retired Iraqi general who had worked for the former US occupation government and his neighbour as they headed to a mosque to pray in the northern city of Mosul.

Major General Salim Majeed Blesh, 58, had been in charge of the Mosul employment office set up by the former US occupation government that gave reconstruction work and other jobs to Iraqis.

General Blesh and his neighbour Sami Noori, 68, were killed in the attack.

Insurgents have repeatedly targeted police and other officials accused of collaborating with the American forces. Meantime, a group calling itself The Holders of the Black Banners has released video of three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian it was holding, and threatened to behead a captive every 72 hours beginning tonight if their trucking company did not agree to stop doing business in Iraq and their countries did not agree to withdraw troops and citizens. In response to the threat, Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport said it would take "all necessary measures" to save the lives of the hostages, but it stopped short of saying it would stop operating in Iraq.

Kenya, India and Egypt are not members of the 160,000-member, US-led military coalition.