BAGHDAD, Dec 8: Iraqi officials said five children were killed in a US air strike on Friday which the U.S. military said killed 20 suspected Al Qaeda militants.
Grieving relatives near Ishaqi, 90 km north of Baghdad, showed the bodies of five children wrapped in blankets to journalists.
Houses, surrounded by open fields, were flattened in the raid and police said they found the bodies of 17 civilians.
Complaints that unjustified killings by US troops are common have soured Iraqis' sentiment toward the US presence in Iraq. Earlier this year Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he was losing patience over such reports.
A bipartisan panel, exploring alternatives for US President George W. Bush's strategy, recommended this week the primary mission of US forces in Iraq evolve to one of training Iraqi forces to take over combat responsibility.
The US military said ground forces with air support struck in an area north of Baghdad where the Sunni Arab insurgency is strong. Police and officials said the bodies of 17 civilians were found in the rubble of two homes.
“The Americans have done this before but they always deny it,” Ishaqi Mayor Amer Alwan said in a phone call “I want the world to know what's happening here.”
In a statement, the US military said the operation in Salahaddin province followed intelligence reports that indicated Al Qaeda militants operated in the area. It said rocket- propelled grenades and explosive suicide vests were found.
Only a handful of complaints involving civilian deaths have led to criminal investigations by the US military.
THREE US SOLDIERS KILLED: Insurgents killed three US soldiers and wounded two others in separate roadside bomb attacks in and around the Iraqi capital, the US military reported on Friday.
Two soldiers died and two others were wounded during a “dismounted patrol” on Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded south of Baghdad, the military said.
Earlier on Friday the military announced the death of another soldier killed during a combat patrol in Baghdad.“The combat patrol was conducting joint operations with the Iraqi army to prevent sectarian violence in a western neighbourhood of the city when the bomb exploded near one of their vehicles,” the military said.—Reuters/AFP
