BAGHDAD, March 22: The US military has ordered an investigation the killing of Iraqi civilians last week, the latest in a series of allegations of abuse and indiscriminate shootings that has mired its three-year occupation of Iraq. The investigation relates to an incident on March 15 in the village of Al Bu Seifa, near Balad north of Baghdad, and comes hot on the heels of a US Navy criminal probe into reports that marines intentionally shot 15 civilians dead near the western town of Haditha last year.

The US military says four civilians — two women, a child, and a man — were killed in the early hours of last Wednesday when troops, looking for an Al Qaeda suspect, came under fire as they raided a house.

Iraqi police say 11 civilians were killed — including five women and four children.

“There is an investigation directed by the commander of the multinational force into the discrepancy between the numbers and to determine the facts,” Lt-Col Barry Johnson said.

“They attacked the house of Fayez Khairat Khalaf Turfa, and they killed 11 people, among them five women, two men, four children, before they dynamited the house and burned three cars,” a local police officer who declined to be named said at the time. “Troops were engaged by enemy fire as they approached the building, Coalition Forces returned fire utilizing both air and ground assets,” according to a US spokesman.

“There was one enemy killed, two women and one child were also killed in the firefight,” he said.—AFP