Witnesses and hospital officials disputed the account, saying that about 30 men were killed, many of them Iraqi. They said 15 children and 11 women also died in the attack.
Neither version of the strike could be independently verified.
The following night, the U.S. military said in a statement that it conducted "another successful precision strike" on a meeting of "approximately 10 Zarqawi terrorists" in central Fallujah. "There was no indication that any innocent civilians were in the immediate vicinity of the meeting location," the military said in the statement.
Neighbors interviewed by an Iraqi journalist working for The Washington Post described a different outcome. They said six people were killed: two foreign fighters meeting in the targeted house and a family of four -- a father, mother and two children -- living next door.
"The civilians are caught in the middle," said Rihab Aloosi, the director of the Fallujah Women's Center. "The U.S. forces don't give mercy to anyone and the holy warriors don't respect the houses and the families inside."
Competing Agendas
U.S. commanders say they believe the near-daily targeting of foreign fighters is starting to create fissures among insurgents in Fallujah. Initially, the outsiders were welcomed by the Mujaheddin Shura Council, an 18-member group of clerics, tribal sheiks and former Baath Party members who effectively run the city and elements of the insurgency. But now, many Fallujah residents appear to be growing weary of Zarqawi's followers, according to residents interviewed by telephone.
Zarqawi's agenda appears to extend well beyond the goal of residents, who want to keep U.S. forces out of the city. He and his supporters have turned the city into a base for wider attacks, particularly against Iraqi officials and security forces. His loyalists, many of whom adhere to the strict Salafi school of Islam, also have attempted to instill hard-line social restrictions, demanding that women cover their hair and hectoring men for not growing beards. Although Fallujah is a deeply religious city, many residents follow mystical Sufi beliefs, such as praying by the graves of relatives, which Salafis regard as blasphemous.
In what may be the strongest sign of tension between residents and foreigners, the head of the Shura Council, Abdullah Janabi, who had invited foreigners to the city in April, issued a statement on Friday calling Zarqawi a "criminal."
"We don't need Zarqawi to defend our city," said Janabi, who sought to draw a distinction between what he called "Iraqi resistance fighters" and foreign fighters engaged in a campaign against Iraq's infrastructure, foreign civilians and Iraqi security forces. "The Iraqi resistance is something and the terrorism is something else. We don't kidnap journalists and we don't sabotage the oil pipelines and the electric power stations. We don't kill innocent Iraqis. We resist the occupation."
Zarqawi's actions, Janabi said, have "harmed the resistance and made it lose the support of people."
Residents have reported skirmishes between residents and foreign fighters in recent weeks. The fighting has broken out after residents, fearful of airstrikes, have sought to evict foreigners from their neighborhoods, the residents said.
A delegation from the Shura Council intends to travel to Baghdad this week for discussions with Iraqi government officials aimed at a negotiated settlement that would allow Iraqi security forces to enter the city, council members said. But two demands of the council -- that non-Iraqi fighters loyal to the council be allowed to stay in Fallujah and that U.S. forces remain outside the city -- could scuttle the talks. Iraqi government officials have expressed an unwillingness to permit foreign fighters or create exclusion zones for U.S. forces.
Marine commanders remain skeptical that negotiations will bring peace to the city. "In the end," Conway said, "there will be a fight in and around Fallujah."
Washington Post special correspondents in Baghdad and Fallujah contributed to this report.
