US marines supported by tanks and aircraft have fought Iraqi insurgents in the besieged city of Falluja leaving six Iraqi civilians dead and 10 wounded.
The fighting began just after daybreak, when dozens of insurgents reportedly attacked US marines encircling the city. The return of Iraqi families to Falluja has been stopped by US soldiers.
US snipers, concealed on rooftops, pumped round after round into buildings, film shot by US journalists with the Marines showed. Black Hawk helicopters blasted unseen targets with machinegun and cannon fire.
An F-16 jet flew overhead and a huge dust cloud rose in the air, possibly after a heavy bomb. "Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be
allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom," Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld said last night.
Dozens of families who had fled earlier fighting queued on the edge of Falluja on Wednesday waiting to be allowed home. The truce deal stipulated that 50 families may return each day.
Mr Muthanna Harith al-Dari, a mediator from the Muslim Clerics Association, said some insurgents had begun to hand in heavy weapons in line with a U.S. truce condition.
"The resistance is ready to hand over their weapons but the Americans have not given them any guarantees that if they do so they will be safe," he said.
But a senior official in the U.S.-led administration said the response to the weapons demand had been "very limited".