Children killed' in US Iraq raid in 2 houses in Alishaqi
Six children
and eight women are among at least 32 people killed in a
US air raid northwest of Baghdad, according to Iraqi
police and local officials.
Khedr Hussein, an
Iraqi police major, said 32 people were killed at
Ishaqi, 90km north of Baghdad.
Mayor Amer Alwan
told Reuters news agency that US aircraft bombed two
homes in the early hours of Friday.
He said 32
civilians were believed to be inside and that of 25
bodies pulled so far from the rubble, eight were women
and six children.
The US
military said in a statement two women were
among 20 suspected "al Qaeda terrorists" killed
during the ground and air operation.
"Civilian victims"
Troops
raided a cluster of buildings in the area
around Thar Thar lake in Salaheddin province on
Friday, and came under attack from a machine gun
and returned fire, killing two suspects, the US
military said.
Air support was then called in and 18 more people were killed, it
added.
The
statement said: "This is another step closer to
defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq and helping establish
a safe and peaceful Iraq."
"Coalition
forces will continue to target not only senior
al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, but all terrorists
regardless of their titles or positions within
the community."
Local
people also told an Agence France Presse
correspondent that the victims had been
civilians and included a large number of
children.
AFP said
it had not been possible to independently
authenticate either report.
Lieutenant
Colonel Chris Garver, a US military spokesman,
later said: "Obviously, these are serious
accusations and we take them seriously - we are
looking into them now."
The US military
said AK-47 machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades,
anti-personnel mines, explosives, blasting caps and
suicide vests were found during the operation.
Garver told AFP news agency that the dead women would have been
confirmed as combatants in a "battle damage assessment"
or inspection of the site following the incident.
"If there is a weapon with or next to the person or they
are holding it, they are a terrorist," he said.
In March, Iraqis accused US forces of shooting 11 people
in al-Ishaqi, including four women and five children,
while US forces maintained it had only killed two women
and a child in an air strike.
The BBC later broadcast video footage from the scene
showing people with gunshot wounds. The soldiers
involved in the case, however, were cleared of all
misconduct.
The US military also announced on Friday the death of a
soldier who was conducting joint operations with the
Iraqi army when a roadside bomb exploded.
Thirty-three
American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the first
seven days of December.
Annan warning
Elsewhere Kofi Annan, the outgoing
secretary-general of the UN, said the worsening conflict
in Iraq is increasing the odds of a regional war in the
Middle East.
In his final report on the UN role in
Iraq before he leaves office on December 31, Annan said
on Friday the violence threatened to "aggravate a range
of underlying tensions in neighboring countries."
As a result, "the prospects of all-out
civil war and even a regional conflict have become much
more real" since his last report, issued three months
ago, he said.
His comments appeared to go beyond
earlier expressions of concern about the deteriorating
situation in Iraq.
He said in a BBC interview aired this week that Iraq was
in the grips of a civil war and many people were worse
off now than under Saddam Hussein.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/12E45678-37C5-40D4-BED1-20240C3A740E.htm
Saturday-
30 Iraqis, 1 Marine Killed; 38 GIs Killed in 9 Days of Dec.
Photos confirm US raid child deaths
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A7B418CB-37BD-4A69-B55C-CBDC7D932B38.htm
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=28874&s2=09
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