BAGHDAD: US forces killed a family of eight, including two children, in a helicopter bombing of their house in the northern Salahaddin province yesterday, witnesses said.
Two children and three women were among the victims when the Ali Taema household in Al-Dour, 170 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, was hit.
The US military said it was targeting terrorists and said the raid had killed at least three suspects. A spokesman for the US-led forces in Baghdad said the US military warned residents repeatedly for an hour before the raid. He said forces bombed the house when those inside refused to surrender.
An assistant to Tikrit’s governor disputed that account, saying the US military bombed the house without any warning.
The coalition forces spokesman said the raid had killed three women and three terrorist suspects, in addition to a child the US military said it had pulled from the rubble and given medical care. “Sadly, this incident again shows that the Al-Qaeda terrorists repeatedly risk the lives of innocent women and children to further their evil work,” coalition spokesman Col. Jerry O’Hara said.
He said one of the men killed in the raid was an explosives maker for Al-Qaeda.
A local police officer, who declined to be identified, said: “We do not know what information they had about this family that led them to commit such an ... act. I am waiting to meet the Americans to find out the reason that led to this tragedy.”
An Interior Ministry official in Baghdad said eight people had been killed in the raid but did not have details.
Civilian deaths are a sensitive issue in Iraq as it negotiates a deal with the United States that will govern the presence of US troops in Iraq when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.
One of the key sticking points is the question of immunity for US soldiers.
In May, Iraqi police said eight civilians were killed in a helicopter strike in the northern town of Baiji, although US forces said six of them were suspected militants with links to a bombing network.
