Eleven killed in clashes near Falluja

Witnesses on Tuesday said heavy clashes broke out in Karma after fighters attacked a US military convoy using mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.

They said at least two US military vehicles had been damaged and troops had cordoned off the area, but it was not clear whether there were any American casualties.

The US military had no immediate comment.

Ahmad Ghani, a doctor at Falluja's main hospital, said 11 Iraqis had been killed and more than 20 wounded. A call was put out for locals to donate blood to help the wounded.

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A man and a woman were killed and two children wounded during a shootout between US marines and insurgents on Tuesday in Karma, 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Fallujah, a witness and medical sources said.
"Fighting broke at around 12:30 pm (0830 GMT) as the insurgents opened fire at the US forces near the police station," Karma resident Mohammed Sleiman told AFP.

The Jordanian hospital near Fallujah said a man and a woman died in the shootout and two children were wounded, one of them seriously.

The marines denied knowledge of the shooting, but said a mortar fired by rebels had hit a house in Karma, wounding an undetermined number of civilians.

Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim bastion, had been rocked in April by the heaviest fighting in Iraq since the US-led invasion last year, but has been relatively calm since US troops handed over patrols to the Iraqi police and the newly-formed Fallujah Brigade, an ad-hoc force of army veterans.

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