Series of deadly attacks in Iraq

The U.S. this evening launched a third "precision" strike on suspected terrorists in Fallujah in a 24-hour period, and at least 53 people died in violence across Iraq today, the U.S. military and the Iraqi Health Ministry said.

Forty-four people were killed today in an earlier U.S. strike near &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/ 21/93/375/13145_Fallujah.html' target=_blank>Fallujah, west of the capital, and at least 27 were hurt, Health Ministry spokesman Saad al-Amily said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. He said 17 children and 2 women were among the wounded, adding that it isn't known who was included in the dead.

This evening's strike killed three people and injured three others in Fallujah, Agence France-Presse reported. The U.S. said it had "no indication any innocent civilians were in the immediate vicinity of the meeting location," which was held near a mosque and school, reports Bloomberg.

According to the Boston Globe, an American &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/98/386/13895_crash.html' target=_blank>jet fired a missile at a house where about 10 members of an al-Qaida-linked group were believed to be meeting in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Friday, police and the U.S. military said. At least three people were killed.

The military said in a statement it carried out a "successful precision strike on the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network."

It was the latest in a series of strikes in and around Fallujah since late Thursday that killed at least 44 people. &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/93/374/12517_US.html' target=_blank>hospital officials in the city, west of Baghdad, said women and children were among the dead.

Al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group has taken responsibility for a series of deadly attacks in Baghdad the past week and is behind a number of kidnappings and slayings of foreign hostages.