Baghdad  - A US warplane killed at least one Iraqi insurgent and wounded at least two more when they were spotted planting explosives by the side of a road, the Multinational Forces in Iraq announced Friday.

US forces said an air weapons team on Thursday night fired on four armed men spotted placing an explosive near a road intersection north of Taji, not far from the site of a large US military base north of Iraq, killing at least one and wounding at least two others.

According to the statement, preliminary investigations showed that at least one of the men involved had worked with the Awakening Councils, or "Sons of Iraq" as the US forces call them - former Sunni insurgents enticed to join the US military's side in exchange for weapons, training and money.

"Hostile acts will be engaged," Major General Daniel Bolger said. "While we value our Sons of Iraq brothers, these men had broken faith with their fellow Sons of Iraq, the Iraqi people and us."

Thursday night's attack came just after the Shiite- and Kurdish-led Iraqi government took full control of the Sunni militias on Thursday, and amid heightened tensions between the government and the Awakening Councils.

Last week, Iraqi and US soldiers quelled a two-day uprising of the local Awakening Council in Fadhil, a Baghdad slum formerly known as a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Clashes broke out last Saturday when Iraqi security forces arrested Adil al-Mashhadani, the head of the local Awakening Council. dpa