US warplances strike militant bases in Fallujah

US forces launched airstrikes against suspected militant bases in Fallujah and carried out probing attacks on the city’s outskirts, as they prepared for a major operation in the insurgent bastion that has become the symbol of Iraqi resistance.

US planners believe many of Fallujah’s 300,000 residents have already fled the city, where militants last spring ambushed and killed four American contractors, mutilated their bodies and hung them from a bridge.