The head of US Central Command, General John Abizaid, escaped unharmed on Thursday from a rocket-propelled grenade attack in the hotspot Iraqi town of Fallujah, a US military officer said.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said RPGs were fired as Abizaid and Major General Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, travelled in a convoy in Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the capital.
"Three rocket-propelled grenades were fired at their convoy from the rooftops in the vicinity," the deputy coalition operations chief told a press conference.
"No soldiers or civilians were injured and both coalition and Iraqi civil defence soldiers returned fire and pursued the attackers," Kimmitt said.
"A local mosque was thought to be harbouring the attackers, and Iraqi Civil Defence soldiers conducted a search of the mosque without result," the general said.
Swannack "attributed the attack to a small number of personnel unrepresentative of what he believes is 95 percent of the people in Fallujah who fully support the coalition," according to Kimmitt.
In Fallujah, police Lieutenant Omar Duleimi said two Iraqi men were killed shortly after the attack, but it was not clear whether they had been involved.
Duleimi said US soldiers opened fire on the two, who were in car, after they shifted quickly into reverse and backed away, yards (metres) from a US checkpoint.
An AFP correspondent in Fallujah saw US soldiers carrying away the bodies of the two men, whose identities were not revealed.
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