US troops 'kill four Iraqis in checkpoint shooting'

US troops fired on two cars at a checkpoint in Fallujah, killing four Iraqis and injuring five others, residents and Arab satellite television reported today.

US military officials could not be reached for comment because their telephone system appeared to be malfunctioning.

However, residents reached by telephone in Fallujah said the incident occurred yesterday on the eastern edge of Fallujah, where opposition to the American presence runs deep. Al-Jazeera television said one of those wounded was a child.

Fallujah, west of Baghdad in the “Sunni Triangle”, is one of the major flashpoints of tension between US troops and Iraqi civilians.

On September 12, US soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division killed eight Iraqi policemen and a Jordanian hospital guard near Fallujah. The police were chasing a car known to have been involved in highway robbery.

In April, soldiers from the division fired on protesters on two successive days, killing 18 and injuring 78. US troops had withdrawn to a base outside the city in July and had been turning over security duties to local police. The US military at the time said the troops were fired at, first in the April incident, but Iraqi witnesses denied this.