US: US forces and Iraqi insurgents traded machine-gun fire, mortars and grenades for four hours in Falluja early yesterday, killing six civilians and breaking a tentative ceasefire, residents said.
They said the clashes erupted in the town's Golan district at around 6 a.m. local time. Marine patrols moved from street to empty street, putting up intense barrages of automatic fire.
US snipers, concealed behind rooftop parapets, pumped round after round into buildings, film shot by US journalists with the Marines showed. Missile-firing Black Hawk helicopters blasted unseen targets with machine-gun and cannon fire.
An F-16 jet flew overhead and a huge dust cloud rose in the air, possibly the result of a heavy bomb.
Local residents said six unarmed civilians were killed and 10 wounded by US fire. There was no independent confirmation of the toll nor of who was responsible for the casualties.
US officials, who say troops do not target civilians, declined comment. ABC television journalists with the 1st Marine Division said troops told them there had been casualties in the four-hour battle but it was unclear how many on either side.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said days of talks involving Iraqi and Sunni Muslim leaders, Falluja officials and representatives of the US governing authority in the city did not include Iraqi insurgents who have been confronting US troops.
The marines launched an assault on Falluja, 50km west of Baghdad, on April 5th after the killing and mutilation of four private American security guards the previous week.
Local doctors say more than 600 Iraqis have died in fighting in Falluja since and up to 2,000 have been wounded, many of them women and children.
On Wednesday, dozens of families who had fled the fighting queued at a checkpoint on the desert fringes of the town waiting to be allowed home. Under an agreement between town leaders and US officials, 50 families are allowed back each day.
Marines manning the roadblock initially turned people back, but some were allowed through as the fighting died down. Women and children were pushed against razor wire coils as the crowd thrust forward waiting to be searched.
A warplane flew overhead, followed by a large blast in the distance. Black smoke rose from the ground.
Marines searched women in black hijab, the all-enveloping robe worn by many Muslim women, using metal detector wands, helped by members of the Iraqi Civil Defence Force (ICDC). - (Reuters)