The attack at 6:33 am (0233 GMT) was on 10 to 12 suspects in the courtyard of a house in the southwest part of Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

"The anti-Iraqi forces were struck while in the courtyard of a house; the house was left intact," said the statement.

A hospital in Fallujah said it received five wounded, including two children, after the attack.

Residents in the Jubail neighbourhood said they jumped from their beds after they heard the strikes to help the injured.

"I was asleep when I heard a very loud explosion so I got up to help take the injured to the hospital," said Mohammed Jassim.

The US military said it has conducted seven similar operations over the past month against Jordanian-born Zarqawi's network in Fallujah.

The strikes have centered in and around the southern neighbourhood of Al-Shuhada.

The latest strike came only five days after a similar hit on a suspected Zarqawi hideout here left 11 people dead and seven injured.

On July 5, US planes dropped six massive bombs on a suspected safe house of Zarqawi's shadowy network, killing 12 people.

Zarqawi, who is blamed for some of the bloodiest car bombs and attacks in Iraq, has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head.

In April, Fallujah was the scene of bitter fighting, leaving hundreds dead as US marines and insurgents clashed in the streets. US forces besieged the city after four American civilian security contractors were killed in Fallujah and two of the bodies mutilated.

WAR.WIRE