FALLUJAH, Iraq, Sept 1 (AFP) - Nine Iraqis were killed and six wounded in a US air strike late Wednesday on suspected Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi safe houses in Fallujah, according to police, medical sources and the US military.
Two buildings were destroyed when a US fighter jet fired two missiles around 11:45 pm (1945 GMT) at two buildings in the residential neighbourhood of Jebel in Fallujah, a hotspot of radical Sunni insurgency 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police and medical sources said.
"We have received nine dead people and six wounded, several in serious condition, said Doctor Seifeddin Taha, from the Fallujah general hospital.
"All the wounded are families. Among the dead, there could be two or three children but the bodies are torn to pieces and it's difficult to tell," he told AFP.
The US military confirmed the attack in a statement, describing it as a "precision" strike on "safe houses and meeting locations" for associates of the Jordanian-born Zarqawi whom US officials blame for dozens of car bomb attacks in Iraq and who has a 25-million-dollar bounty on his head.
Earlier in the day, Zarqawi supporters were observed removing a corpse from a car trunk and burying the body in southern Fallujah, the military said.
The military had no immediate casualty figures from the attack.
Five people were killed and 42 wounded on Saturday when US marines pounded militant positions in the restive city, a bastion for the country's most extremist groups which the US military and Iraqi forces have failed to rein in.
The US military has regularly bombed suspected Zarqawi safe houses in Fallujah since June.
In April, Fallujah was the scene of bitter fighting, leaving hundreds dead as US marines and insurgents clashed in the streets. US forces besieged the city after four American civilian security contractors were killed in Fallujah and two of the bodies mutilated.