U.S. Forces Bomb Targets in Fallouja

FALLOUJA, Iraq —  U.S. warplanes bombed the volatile city of Fallouja early today, and flames and smoke rose from its southern neighborhoods, witnesses said. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, one U.S. soldier was killed and two others were wounded Monday when their patrol was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, military officials said.

In other violence, assailants in Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, killed one Turkish citizen and two Iraqis, Maj. Neal O’Brien, a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division, said Monday.

He said the three were killed along a road as they drove toward the northern city of Kirkuk late Sunday.

In Kirkuk, Sharzad Hassan, 31, an official with the pro-U.S. Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was gunned down by unknown attackers in a car late Sunday, police officer Sarhat Qadir said Monday.

After the U.S. strike in Fallouja, ambulances and firetrucks raced to the scene. It was unclear what the target was and whether there were casualties.

U.S. forces have routinely bombed targets they describe as insurgent safe houses or strongholds in Fallouja, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.