The top US general in Iraq, John Abizaid has escaped injury in a gun battle in the Iraqi town of Falluja.
Gen Abizaid had just arrived at the local headquarters of the Iraqi civil defence corps when several explosions were heard, a US army spokesman said.
Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said three rocket-propelled grenades had been fired at the base from nearby rooftops.
US soldiers responded with rifle and machine-gun fire in a battle that lasted about six minutes.
The incident comes after two US soldiers were killed and one injured in a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Wednesday night.
Visit curtailed
No US soldiers were injured in the Falluja incident, the US military said.
The latest attacks follow two consecutive days of heavy bloodshed in Iraq, when nearly 100 Iraqis were killed by two separate car bombs outside recruitment centres.
In Falluja, Gen Abizaid, the commander of all US forces in the Middle East, was accompanied by Maj Gen Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. After the attack, they cancelled a planned walkabout in the town and returned to a nearby US military base.
Gen Kimmitt told reporters it was not clear whether the attackers knew beforehand of the visit.
He said a "small number" of attackers had been hiding in a nearby mosque, but apparently escaped.
Bombings
More than 370 Americans have been killed in Iraq since the start of the US-led invasion last March.
On Wednesday, 47 Iraqis died when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army recruitment centre in the capital.
A day earlier, at least 50 people were killed in a similar attack outside a police recruitment office south of Baghdad.
There has been a marked increase in attacks on Iraqis seen to be co-operating with the US-led coalition in recent weeks, particularly police and those wanting to join the new Iraqi army.
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