About 25 suspected Iraqi militants were killed in an air strike today targeting a commander working with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the US military said.
The military said troops were involved in a firefight west of Baquba, capital of volatile Diyala province, during a raid against a commander it said was linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Qods force.
Police and hospital sources said 25 people were killed and another 35 wounded in the US air strike in the village of Jezan al-Imam near Khalis, a town northwest of Baquba. They said four houses were destroyed.
Aircraft were called in when US soldiers came under attack from militants firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, with one insurgent thought to have an anti-aircraft weapon.
US commanders in Iraq have repeatedly accused Shia Iran's Revolutionary Guards of training and arming Shia militias in Iraq and supplying them with weapons.
Tehran denies the charge and blames the sectarian violence in Iraq on the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.