US forces target insurgents in Fallujah

Four civilians were killed and 12 injured in a series of overnight strikes in the rebel-held Iraqi city of Fallujah, hospital staff said today.

US-led forces confirmed one strike at around 1am local time today (11pm Irish time yesterday) which they said severely damaged a building where 10 to 15 insurgents were moving weapons on the outskirts of this city.

“Forty-five minutes of secondary explosions indicated the building was being used as a huge weapons/ammunition cache,” A US military statement said. “A large number of enemy fighters are presumed killed.”

Dr Dhia Ahmed said Fallujah General Hospital received two bodies and treated 10 people wounded in air strikes on the al-Jolan, Shuhada, al-Askari and Jubail neighbourhoods of the city, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Two more people, a man and his wife, were killed and two wounded when a tank fired on a house in the city’s southern suburbs, Dr Rafe al-Issawi said.

It was the latest in weeks of strikes aimed at groups with links to terrorists, particularly the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Followers of the Jordanian militant have claimed responsibility for a string of deadly bombings, kidnappings and other attacks and are believed to be holding British engineer Kenneth Bigley.

“This strike reduced the capability of the Zarqawi network and increased safety and security throughout Iraq,” the US military said.