US air attacks in Falluja kill 15 in 24 hours

US aircraft blasted the rebel stronghold of Falluja for a third time in 24 hours in a concerted effort to hit militants loyal to guerilla chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Washington's number one enemy in Iraq.

The strike came just before US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the insurgency in Iraq was worsening, but the United States was taking action to improve security ahead of elections in January.

"We are fighting an intense insurgency," Mr Powell said yesterday on ABC's This Week programme. "Yes it's getting worse and the reason it's getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election.

"And because it's getting worse we will have to increase our efforts to defeat it, not walk away and pray and hope for something else to happen," Mr Powell said.

He also told CNN's Late Edition that the US was helping interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi organise a conference of Middle Eastern and Western countries this year to discuss how neighbouring states can help Iraq.

The meeting may be held in October or early November, possibly in Amman, Jordan, or Cairo, Egypt, Mr Powell said.

The air strike was aimed at about 10 suspected militants meeting in the city centre to plan operations, the US military said. Eight people were killed and 17 wounded, Anas Ahmed, a doctor at a nearby hospital, said.

The latest in what the military calls "precision strikes" raised the death toll for the series to 15 killed and 30 wounded, among them women and children, doctors said.

Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed many of the car bombings and attacks in Iraq over the past year, including kidnappings in which several of the hostages have been beheaded.

After the air strike on Falluja, doctors would not let a cameraman film the wounded as reporters have been allowed to do after previous strikes on Falluja. Residents would also not allow reporters near the site of the attack.

"Multiple secondary explosions following the strike indicate the site was used by terrorists to store explosives and weapons," a military statement said.

Falluja, about 50 km west of Baghdad, is home to some of Iraq's most hardened Sunni Muslim militants.

US forces tried to overrun Falluja earlier this year, but withdrew after weeks of furious fighting. Since then, they say it has become a magnet for foreign militants.

A senior US military official said more than 100 of Zarqawi's followers had been killed or captured in Falluja in the last four weeks. He said reports of civilian casualties from air strikes had been exaggerated.

The US military believes the Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who has a $25 million price on his head, is holed up in Falluja and coordinating activities from there.

His group seized two Americans and a Briton from their home in Baghdad 10 days ago, demanding the release of women prisoners from Iraqi jails in return for their lives.

No women were freed and the two Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, were killed. Briton Kenneth Bigley is also threatened with death, although no deadline has been set.

A London-based Islamist activist who has good contacts with Islamist groups in Iraq said yesterday that Mr Bigley was still alive.