IRAQ: US warplanes and attack helicopters killed about 70 militants around the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, the military said yesterday, after Saturday's landmark referendum that appeared to have backed a new constitution.
Ramadi police said about 20 of those killed in the US strikes were civilians, including some children, although the US military said it had no such reports.
Election officials slowly counted up to 10 million ballots from Saturday's referendum, with partial results pointing to a clear win for a charter Washington hopes will help establish Iraq as a stable democracy able to do without US troops.
The violence in Ramadi highlighted the challenge posed by Sunni Arab insurgents opposed to the US-backed constitution. Few people in Ramadi voted, yet for the first time, many Sunnis in Iraq took part in the referendum, even if a large majority of them voted "No", provisional figures show.
In the northern city of Mosul, police found the bodies of eight men believed to be Iraqi soldiers shot through the head.