09 October 2004	Saturday	23 Shaban 1425

FALLUJAH, Oct 8: Twelve people, participating a wedding party, were killed and the bride was among the wounded when US warplanes bombed the Iraqi city of Fallujah early Friday, doctors said.

The US military claimed that it was a "precision strike" targeting leaders of Iraq's most wanted man, the Al Qaeda-linked militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. "We have received 10 dead and 16 wounded," said Dr Khaled Mohammad, noting that the bride was among nine injured females.

Two more bodies were pulled from the rubble of a house where the wedding party had taken place, which was destroyed in the attack, said a second doctor at Fallujah general hospital, Ali Hayad.

People were still sifting threw the rubble, he said. The US military, for which the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad has since April become a no-go zone for its ground troops, gave no information on casualties in a statement released after the raid.

"This strike contributed to reducing the capability of the Zarqawi network and increasing safety and security throughout Iraq," it said. Zarqawi's Unity and Holy War group is blamed for a string of deadly attacks and beheadings of hostages.

"Credible intelligence sources confirmed Zarqawi leaders were meeting at the safe house at the time of the strike," the US Army said in the statement. -AFP