| U.S. warplanes firing rockets destroyed four houses in the besieged city of Fallujah late Tuesday, witnesses said. A doctor said 26 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed and 30 wounded in the strike. U.S. Marines have been battling Iraqi guerrillas since Monday in a siege aimed at putting down Iraqi guerrillas in Fallujah, one of their main strongholds. The rockets destroyed the houses in two neighborhoods in the city after nightfall Tuesday, the witnesses said. Rafie al-Issawi, a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital, said the hospital received the bodies of 26 dead along with 30 wounded soon after. He said their wounds suggested they had been in the destroyed houses. The deaths bring the total death toll among Iraqis in Fallujah on Tuesday to 34, including eight during heavy street fighting during the day. |