BAGHDAD, September 10, 2004 - A U.S. jet fired missiles on Friday in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Falluja, the fourth day of attacks on the city where U.S. and Iraqi troops have no control, officials said.

One man was killed in the attack, Dr. Ahmed Thaer of the Falluja general hospital said. The attack followed airstrikes on Thursday that reportedly killed nine people in Falluja and dozens more in the northern town of Tal Afar, another city that has fallen under insurgent control and become a "no-go" zone for U.S. troops.

Late Thursday, the regional government's television station reported that U.S. and Iraqi government forces had agreed to allow medical teams to enter Tal Afar to care for people wounded from the airstrikes there, but that military operations would continue "until the city is liberated from outsiders and saboteurs so that peace can be restored."

Also on Friday, about 1,000 protesters marched through Najaf's old quarter to demand that Moktada al-Sadr and his aides leave the holy city, which has been ravaged by fighting between the radical cleric's followers and U.S. and Iraqi troops.

The demonstrators, chanting "Moktada, the trash, is a leader of looters," walked past buildings hit by three weeks of fighting and insisted that Sadr's office be closed. Iraqi soldiers kept the protesters from marching to Sadr's office. They also demanded that the Iraqi government investigate the practices of a religious court that Sadr's office operated and punish those in charge of it.

The court, which worked separately from Iraq's legal system, ordered arrests and handed out punishments.

It stopped functioning after Sadr's followers relinquished the control they had in a deal to end the violence.

Sheik Ali Smeisim, an aide to Sadr, said the demonstration was an attempt to create tension.

"We were expecting such things," he said.

"Whenever there is a chance for peaceful solutions, some people hold protests to escalate the situation."

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