US warplanes launched an air strike on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah early Tuesday, killing an associate of al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the US military said in a statement.

The attack occurred at 3:00 am (2400 GMT) when the US warplanes carried out a "precision strike" on a hideout being used by Zarqawi's followers, killing a "known associate," the statement said.

"Multiple sources reported that a known associate of the Zarqawi network was present at the time of the strike," it added.

Local residents in Fallujah told Xinhua that one house was destroyed in al-Dhubat neighborhood, northeast of the city.

"Two people were injured in the attack," Falih al-Issawi of Fallujah General Hospital told Xinhua, adding that people were still removing the debris at the scene.

People in Fallujah deny that Zarqawi's followers are in the city, some 50 km west of Baghdad, and insist that casualties of US attacks are mainly civilians.

The US military has been hitting Fallujah almost daily in a bid to hunt Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant whose Tawhid and Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in the country since the US-led invasion of Iraq last year.

Source: Xinhua