US strike kills 3 Iraqis

The fight involved the 82nd Airborne Division and started after US soldiers were attacked, according to the military. Spec. Nicole Thompson said the attackers ran into a building and ground troops called in air support. One guerrilla fighter was killed.

The incident occurred in al-Sajr, a village nine miles north of Fallujah, one of the most dangerous cities in the so-called "Sunni Triangle," the region where support for Saddam Hussein runs strongest and where US troops have met stiffest resistance.

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"At 2:10 a.m., we heard three explosions at different times. About 20 minutes later, two martyrs arrived at the hospital. They died before they arrived. The third died in the hospital. There were three injured," a police lieutenant at the Fallujah General Hospital, who gave his name only as Nabil, told Associated Press Television News.

Helicopters could be seen over the region of the fight at dawn Tuesday. There were two big craters in courtyards of the houses that were involved, indicating bombs of some sort had been dropped.

At the Fallujah hospital, Abed Rasheed, 50, a retired Iraqi service member and one of the wounded, said he was sleeping with his family on the roof of his house when he heard small arms fire. He ran downstairs just as the American aircraft raced overhead, firing what he believed were rockets. He was hospitalised with wounds in the chest and left foot.

"There never was any trouble in our village and the Americans have never been inside it," he said from his hospital bed. "This is genocide. This is not about overthrowing a government or regime change."The injured included two boys - Hussein, 11, and his brother Tahseen, 9. Their father Ali Khalaf Mohammed, 45, was killed. Hussein lay in his hospital bed wearing a blood-soaked gown. His brother was a few yards away, his face swollen from facial cuts.

In Baghdad Monday, the US-picked Governing Council voted to evict two Arab satellite broadcasting companies from Iraq, said Iraqi National Congress spokesman Entifadh K. Qanbar. The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and Dubai-based Al-Arabiya have given blanket coverage of events in Iraq, often highly critical of the US-led occupation.