US kills 40 rebels in Iraq mosque raid

American fighter aircraft slammed a Hellfire missile and a laser-guided precision bomb into the mosque in Fallujah — a Sunni Muslim stronghold west of Baghdad — after three US marines were wounded by rebel fire.

‘‘We want to kill the people inside,’’ said Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne, adding that there were as many as 40 rebels holed up in the building.

US marines have been locked in fierce fighting with Sunni insurgents in the town for three days, with some 46 Iraqis had been killed and dozens wounded in the town before the mosque bombing, hospital sources said.

The marine operation involving some 2,000 troops dubbed ‘‘vigilant resolve’’ is aimed at flushing out insurgents who killed four American contractors last week, dragging their burned mutilated bodies through the streets and stringing two from a bridge.

All the city mosques were calling for a jihad against US-led occupation forces amid intense bombardments and aircraft overflights, an AFP correspondent in the town said.

Calm was restored in the Sunni town of Ramadi, 80 kilometres west of Baghdad today, a day after 12 marines were killed there in the worst single day loss for US forces this year.

But Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from Kut, south of Baghdad, after heavy fighting with Sadr’s supporters who now controlled the city, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said.

The troops retreated to their base after fierce fighting which left several dozen Iraqis dead and one Ukrainian soldier. US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt vowed coalition forces would turn the tables on the Shi’ite Mehdi Army militia and called on Sadr to turn himself in to face murder charges, and help end the violence.