BAGHDAD, Iraq – American warplanes unleashed devastating air strikes on a suspected hideout where operatives from an Al Qaeda-linked group were meeting yesterday. Hospital officials said 20 people died.

One strike hit an ambulance as it sped away with wounded, a hospital official said; the American military said innocent lives were spared.

Also yesterday, a video posted on a Web site in the name of the terrorists – led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – purportedly showed the beheading of a kidnapped Turkish truck driver. Mr. al-Zarqawi is blamed for a string of terror attacks in Iraq, including bombings and the slayings of other hostages. Washington has a $10 million bounty on his head.

The American military said jets carried out the strike on a site in Fallujah, where several members of a group led by Mr. al-Zarqawi were meeting. It was at least the fifth air strike in the past week on the city, indicating the high priority American officials place on destroying Mr. al-Zarqawi’s group.

Warplanes hit the city west of Baghdad after “intelligence sources reported the presence of several al-Zarqawi operatives who have been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks against Iraqi civilians, Iraqi Security Forces, and multinational forces,” the military said in a statement.

“Intelligence reports indicated that only Zarqawi operatives and associates were at the meeting location at the time of the strike,” the statement said. “Based on analysis of these reports, Iraqi Security Forces and multinational forces effectively and accurately targeted these terrorists while protecting the lives of innocent civilians.”

Iraqi witnesses said a market, homes, and an ambulance were hit.

“We did not hit a marketplace,” said Major Jay Antonelli in a statement, but there was no immediate comment on the accusation that an ambulance was hit.

The air strike, which wrecked houses and hurled furniture into trees, sent a huge brown cloud over the residential al-Shurta neighborhood.

Witnesses said one explosion went off in a market as sellers were setting up their stalls, wounding several people and shattering windows. An ambulance was struck while rushing from the area, killing the paramedic driver and five wounded patients, hospital official Hamid Salaman said.

A site known for posting the terrorist group’s messages, meanwhile, released the tape of the Turkish hostage’s slaying digitally dated August 17. The authenticity of the tape could not be verified, but it appeared on a Web site known for carrying statements from Mr. al-Zarqawi’s group, Tawhid and Jihad.

On the tape, the victim identified himself as Durmus Kumdereli and said he was seized while transporting goods to an American military base. Kumdereli was reported kidnapped August 14.

In Ankara, Turkey, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ministry was aware of the video, but was unable to confirm Kumdereli’s death.

Turkey’s Anatolia news agency quoted Kumdereli’s wife as saying her husband took the job to pay off debts. “They cannot be Muslims,” Melahat Kumdereli, 45, was quoted as saying. “A heathen would not do what they have done.”

Also yesterday, Italy’s foreign minister went to Kuwait in hopes of winning the release of two Italian women kidnapped in Iraq. The foreign minister, Franco Frattini, appealed for a “civilized dialogue” as he stood inside Kuwait’s Grand Mosque.

France’s interior minister said yesterday that the surge in fighting in Iraq has complicated efforts to free two reporters held hostage, with even the French Embassy in Baghdad coming under fire.

Dominique de Villepin gave no other news about the fates of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. He reiterated that officials are working for their release and that there are signs the men are alive.