A US warplane dropped six massive bombs on a house in the volatile Iraqi city of Fallujah late Monday, killing 12 people and wounded five others, the military and local residents said.
The Fallujah general hospital reported 12 dead and five wounded in the blistering air strike.
"We have 12 dead, three of them mutilated, and five wounded," said a doctor who refused to give his name.
The raid hit the south-eastern Shuhada neighbourhood in Fallujah, where previous air strikes targeted suspected safe houses of Al-Qaeda-linked militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
"Multinational forces conducted a co-ordinated air strike against a Mujahedeen safe house at 7:15 pm (1515 GMT) today in Fallujah," a military spokesman said, confirming it was the fifth such raid on the Sunni Muslim bastion in two weeks.
"Four 500-pound (227 kilogram) bombs and two 1,000-pound bombs were dropped".