IRAQ: US air strikes killed a family of six in an attack meant for fighters loyal to a self-declared al-Qaeda ally.
The US military denied a family of six was killed, saying it launched four strikes against safehouses used by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's fighters. "Intelligence sources indicate a known Zarqawi propagandist is passing false reports to the media," it said in a statement.
Men chanted "There is no God but Allah!" as they carried the body of the father through the rubble of the razed family home in the rebel-held town of Falluja yesterday.
"Is this the gift that [ interim Prime Minister] Iyad Allawi is giving to the people of Falluja?" asked one man, pointing to the small bodies of two of the children lying in the boot of a car. "Every day they strike Falluja."
Later, at least six civilians were killed and 11 US soldiers wounded in clashes in Samarra, a northern Iraqi town the US military said it had pacified following an offensive earlier this month.
Two car bombs killed a child and also wounded a civilian translator in the centre of the town, the US military said.
Hospital officials said six civilians had been killed and 17 wounded in several clashes.
Residents said US troops in vehicles with loudspeakers told Samarra residents to stay off the streets between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Witnesses said clashes that began in the afternoon were continuing on into the night on the edges of the city and the nearby town of Duluiya.
The interim Iraqi government, backed by US troops, has vowed to take control of rebel-held areas of Iraq before elections scheduled for January.
The US military says its almost nightly strikes on Falluja are carefully targeted at the fighters of Zarqawi, who it says is holed up in the town, about 50 km west of Baghdad.
But locals say they know nothing of Zarqawi and that the US raids kill civilians and destroy homes.
Western diplomats in Baghdad say an offensive against the town of 300,000 is becoming increasingly likely.
In other violence, an adviser to Mr Allawi's political party was killed in a drive-by shooting in the capital yesterday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
A 15-year-old boy was killed in shooting on Tuesday near the town of Baquba, 65 km north of Baghdad, after two roadside bombs exploded near a joint US and Iraqi police convoy. The bombs wounded two Americans and four Iraqi police.
In Baquba, gunmen killed an Iraqi building contractor working for US forces early yesterday.