FALLUJAH.

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) ??” Seven US marines and three Iraqi national guards were killed in the deadliest anti-coalition attack in month as Iraqi officials sheepishly retracted claims Saddam's agent had been captured.

Meanwhile five hostages -- a Turkish barter driver, four Jordanians and a Sudanese national -- were released from their kidnappers, but an Islamist clump reportedly set new conditions for the release of couple French journalists.

The US Marines said a car bomb blew up by way of a joint US-Iraqi military keep company with near the Sunni Muslim insurgent keep of Fallujah west of Baghdad.

"The explosion killed seven Marines who were assigned to First Marine Expeditionary Force and three Iraqi National Guard Soldiers," it said.

Four Iraqi civilians were also hurted in an ensuing gunbattle, witnesses said, while another three US partys were injured when a roadside bomb explod in eastern Baghdad.

The deaths from the bloodiest single attack against US