NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Dec. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Four Iraqis were killed and five others wounded Friday when US warplanes struck the town of Ameriyat, near the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah."The American airstrike killed four Iraqis, wounded five and burned six civilian cars," medical sources and witnesses told Xinhua at the scene.

    US warplanes attacked the edges of the small town, some 7 km southwest of Fallujah, after fierce clashes erupted between insurgents and US troops in the area.

    Inside Fallujah, clashes raged in the southern districts.The resistance forces accused in a statement that the US-Iraqi forces used internationally prohibited weapons in its last attack.US and Iraqi forces started a major offensive on Nov. 8 to crush in surgents, including groups led by the Jordanian-born militant Musab al-Zarqawi, in Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim town 50 km west of Baghdad.

    About one week later, the US military claimed it had controlled the city. Enditem