Reuters - 9/9/2004 8:00:00 AM GMT
For a third successive night, U.S. warplanes have bombed houses in Falluja, eight people were killed, four of them children, doctors and witnesses said Thursday.
The U.S. military claimed that the air raid was part of a "precision strike" on an operating base for Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Dr. Rafi Hayad, a doctor at Falluja's main hospital, said on Thursday that four children and two women were among those who got injured in the attack.
Injured people lay on hospital beds while residents with flashlights searched for more victims in the rubble.
The U.S. forces launched the air strike after 2 a.m. (11:00 p.m. British time) on a northern district of Falluja.
At least two houses have been completely destroyed in the attack, witnesses said.
"Three Zarqawi associates were reported to be in the area, no other individuals were present at the time of the strike," the military said in a statement.
U.S. forces have launched dozen of air strikes on Falluja during over recent weeks. On each occasion Falluja residents have said civilians were killed and that Zarqawi was not in the area.
U.S. occupation forces have been battling with Iraqi fighters around Falluja and in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City in recent days.
Fierce fighting
Fierce fighting erupted between the U.S. forces and Iraqi fighters around the northern Iraq town of Tal Afar overnight.
At least 17 people are reported killed in the fighting, and doctors say dozens more were wounded.
Meanwhile, Iraq's interim government is struggling to contain a widening hostage crisis.
Two Italian women aid workers and two Iraqi colleagues were abducted in Iraq on Tuesday. No word has yet emerged from their captors.
On Wednesday, international aid agencies held talks to discuss withdrawing from Iraq. Jean-Dominique Bunel, a Frenchman helping to co-ordinate aid groups operating in Iraq, said he expected most of the remaining 50 foreign aid workers to leave the country soon.
Dozens of people were abducted over the past few months in Iraq by groups demanding foreign troops and firms to pull out of the country. More than 20 foreigners have been killed.