Dubai - Arabic-language satellite TV channel Al Jazeera on Tuesday accused US-led coalition officials in Iraq of threatening the media over their coverage of US troops battling Iraqi rebels.
US Army chief spokesperson, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, on Monday called Qatar-based Al Jazeera, Dubai-based Al Arabiya and other Arab media outlets the "anti-coalition media" and advised viewers to "change the channel".
"Al Jazeera rejects these accusations and considers them a threat to the right of the media to cover the reality in Iraq amid a difficult and complex situation on the ground," Al Jazeera said in a statement faxed to Reuters.
"This is unjustified pressure on the media," it added.
US Marines, responding to the murder and mutilation of four American private security guards ambushed in Falluja on March 31, attacked rebels in the town last week.
As fighting has intensified, US authorities have stepped up a separate battle for public opinion, tightly controlling the flow of information to journalists whose ability to move freely in Iraq has been limited by increasing danger.
Doctors in Falluja say over 600 people have died in the fighting. The US military says they are mainly rebels but Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, with teams inside the town, say a large number of women and children are among the dead.
Reuters footage taken from Falluja to Baghdad showed dead children, old men and women lying wounded in overflowing makeshift clinics.