A US air strike on a Baghdad neighbourhood overnight killed 14 people and demolished several houses, police said today.
Police sources said the air strike took place in the Washash neighbourhood, a stronghold of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, in western Baghdad's Mansour district.
Nine people were wounded in the attack and five houses destroyed, it was reported.
The US military is targeting what it calls rogue elements of the Mehdi Army. It says many of these "special groups" have links to Iran, which it says is supply weapons and training, a charge Tehran denies.
Sadr last week ordered the Mehdi Army to suspend its operations for six months in what was seen as a move to restore his authority over the militia, which US officials say has fractured into splinter groups.