IRAQ:US air strikes in Baghdad yesterday killed what the American military said were 30 militants suspected of transporting roadside bombs from Iran, but local authorities said civilians were among the dead.
Hospital officials put the death toll in the area at 13. A US military spokesman said there were no civilian casualties in the strikes by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in Sadr City, a sprawling Shia slum in northeast Baghdad.
"There were women and children in the area when we conducted the operation, but none were killed in the air strike," Lieut-Col Christopher Garver said.
The manager of the Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City said 10 people were killed, one of them a woman. Sadr City Hospital had received three bodies, its manager said. Police said 11 died, including women and children.
The predawn raid came hours before a vehicle curfew was imposed in the city, ahead of a major Shia ceremony that two years ago saw the deadliest single incident in Iraq's four-year conflict. More than 1,000 people were killed in a stampede. The US military said its soldiers and Iraqi allies killed two armed men as they began raids in Sadr City, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr.
Air strikes were called in when they saw "a large group of armed men" and a vehicle trying to attack ground forces, a US military statement said. More than 70 per cent of attacks on US forces in Baghdad in July were carried out by Shia militias, some trained in Iran, the US army claims.
Local resident Abu Ammar said the raid targeted Amer al-Hassani, a local cleric. - (Reuters)