Shelling, clashes in Iraq\\\'s Fallujah kill 8

BAGHDAD, May 9 (AFP): Early morning shelling and clashes in Fallujah, a town near Baghdad that has been held by anti-government fighters for more than four months, killed eight people Friday, a doctor said.

The violence erupted at about 3:00 am (0000 GMT) in and around the predominantly Sunni Arab town and continued for several hours, a tribal leader said, with nine other people wounded in the firefights and bombardment.

Among the dead were two children, according to Dr Ahmed Shami, the chief of Fallujah's main hospital. Another two children were wounded.

In a sign of both the reach of anti-government militants and the weakness of security forces, all of Fallujah and shifting parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, farther west, have been out of government control since early January.