Falluja confusion as toll mounts

America's top soldier has contradicted officers on the ground in Iraq by denying a Saddam-era general has been given control of the city of Falluja.

Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not believe Gen Jasim Saleh would pass the vetting process for taking command.

Gen Saleh has been in the city with 200 Iraqi peacekeepers since Friday.

Nine US soldiers died in attacks on Sunday, taking to 12 the death toll for the first two days of May.

April saw the highest US combat losses in Iraq since the invasion last March, with 129 killed.

In the bloodiest attack on Sunday, two mortars hit an unidentified base in western Iraq, killing six soldiers

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