The US military action came just as hopes were rising for the release of a Filipino and an Egyptian held hostage by Islamic militants including a group linked to the Americans' suspected target, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

The Jordanian-born Zarqawi, said to be linked to Al-Qaeda and who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, claimed responsibility for an attempt to assassinate Iraqi Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan on Saturday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is struggling to exercise authority over the volatile country as his government prepares for its fourth week in control, gave permission for the aerial bombardment, officials said.

However, the defence ministry refused to say whether any Iraqi forces were involved in the operation.

The US military said it launched an attack on Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim rebel bastion 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, against "terrorist targets" but had no immediate word on the number of casualties.

Officials at Fallujah's main hospital said 11 people were killed, including a woman, and seven injured.

The US military has conducted several airborne attacks on Fallujah in pursuit of Zarqawi, who is wanted for dozens of attacks against the US-led occupation and the new Iraqi government.

In Saturday's suicide car bombing, justice minister Hassan escaped unscathed but three of his guards, including a nephew, were killed along with two civilians.

Zarqawi's Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group claimed the attack in a message posted on an Islamist website, although its authenticity could not be verified.

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

The net closed in on another element of an insurgency that bred during the US-led occupation as American soldiers captured a senior commander in Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard.

US major Neal O'Brien said US-led forces captured Sufian Maher Hassan, a former major general in the Republican Guard, near the ousted dictator's hometown of Tikrit on Friday.

Meanwhile, the government in the Philippines said it has decided to bow to the demands of Islamic militants who kidnapped Angelo de la Cruz and withdraw its 51 police and soldiers from Iraq to save his life.

Manila said the tail-end of its symbolic military presence would leave the country within 24 hours, despite a personal request from Allawi not to succumb to threats.

Allawi warned this week that giving into the kidnappers would only encourage the phenomenon, which has accompanied a violent insurgency in Iraq since Saddam's regime was toppled by US-led forces in April.

Dozens of foreigners working here have been abducted. Some have been set free, some remain missing and others have been killed.

Despite the warning, the employer of an Egyptian hostage has also ended all its operations in Iraq, as demanded by the abductors of Sayed Mohammed Sayed al-Garbawi, who is apparently due to be set free on Sunday.

An official at Egypt's interests section in Iraq, however, said Sunday he had no fresh information on the whereabouts of Garbawi, who was abducted by Zarqawi's Tawhid wal Jihad group.

There was also no word on a kidnapped Bulgarian truck driver threatened with execution after his companion was beheaded earlier in the week.

In other developments on Sunday, Allawi lifted a ban imposed by the former US-led occupation on a controversial newspaper belonging to firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr.

The closure of the paper at the end of March was one of the catalysts for a a bloody rebellion by Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia against coalition forces in central and southern Iraq that lasted more than 40 days and killed hundreds.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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