BAGHDAD, April 13: Half the Iraqis killed in a US offensive in the town of Fallujah were women, children and elderly people, a mediator said on Tuesday, but US officials insisted they took all precautions to avoid non-combatants.

Fouad Rawi, senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party spearheading efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the city west of Baghdad, quoted hospital sources as saying more than 600 Iraqis had been killed and 1,250 wounded.

"Among those killed were 160 women, 141 children and many elderly," he said, providing the first precise figures on the number of civilian deaths from the nearly week-long offensive.

But US officials said it was impossible to determine how many civilians had died in the drive by US marines in the Sunni Muslim bastion before a ceasefire took hold over the weekend.

They also stressed their forces used precision weapons to minimize the risk of hitting civilians as they sought to root out insurgents following the brutal murders of four United States contractors in Fallujah on March 31.

The offensive, which sent thousands of residents fleeing to the desert, drew considerable criticism from even staunch United States supporters among the Iraqis who said it amounted to collective punishment of civilians. But Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy director of military operations, said on Monday the blame lay with the insurgents.

"Collective punishment is imposed on the people of Fallujah by those terrorists and cowards that hunker down inside mosques, hospitals and schools and use women and children as shields to hide," he said. -AFP