The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Fallujah

A woman and three children were killed on Wednesday when a bomb exploded near the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, the US military and a medical official said.

"An improvised explosive device killed one civilian female and three civilian children approximately 10 kilometers (six miles) southeast of Fallujah," a US military spokesman told AFP.

Another child was injured in the blast, he added.

The deputy head of the hospital in Fallujah, Hamed Abdallah al-Hamadi, confirmed the number of people killed in the blast but said two children had been injured. A US military statement said that all the victims were inside their home when the bomb went off outside the building.

"A second bomb had been discovered," it added.

Fallujah, in Anbar province, was the epicentre of a Sunni-led rebellion against US forces in the months following the March 2003 invasion.

The city was virtually razed in 2004 in one of the biggest assaults launched by US forces, but on September 1 this year Iraqi forces took over control of Anbar after dramatic improvements in security.