US aircraft launched new air strikes in the Fallujah today aimed at killing supporters of a Jordanian militant who has led a campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings in Iraq.
In one attack, the US military said it targeted supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and that no innocent civilians were in the area. In a second operation, US forces responded with a "precision air strike" against a house after American troops came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.
But doctors at Falluja's main hospital said at least seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded, including women and children.
Reuterstelevision pictures showed a crowd of Iraqis digging through the ruins of a destroyed building and pulling out survivors, including two women and two children.
Zarqawi's group said this week it had killed American hostages Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, and posted video footage on the Internet showing them being beheaded.
The Tawhid and Jihad group says it will also kill Briton Mr Kenneth Bigley, 62, unless Iraqi women are released from US- run jails. Mr Bigley was snatched along with the two Americans at their house in Baghdad last week.
Prominent British Muslims arrived in Baghdad today to plead for his release.
"Our religion is one of compassion and love," Mr Musharraf Hussain, a member of the two-person delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain, told reporters.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last night issued a statement on the Al Jazeera Network calling for the release of Mr Bigley, whose mother is originally from Dublin.
Mr Ahern said Mr Bigley was an "ordinary working man" who did not deserve to be harmed in any way.
There have been three audacious raids to seize foreigners in Baghdad this month. Two female Italian aid workers were kidnapped more than two weeks ago, and on Thursday evening two Egyptian workers were snatched from their office in the capital.
The US military has conceded it is not in control of rebel strongholds like Fallujah and nearby Ramadi, but says it will launch a campaign to retake them ahead of elections in January. Four US marines were killed yesterday in three attacks in the Iraqi province that includes Fallujah and Ramadi.
A US soldier was killed today in Baghdad after his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, the US military said.
In the latest attack on Iraq's fledgling security forces, gunmen opened fire on men travelling to a Baghdad recruitment centre in a van, killing seven, the US military said. Insurgents also fired mortars at the Oil Ministry building in Baghdad, but there were no casualties.