Civilians killed in raids by U.S.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. forces destroyed two buildings west of Baghdad, killing six suspected insurgents, two women and a child, the military said Sunday.

It was the latest in a series of raids in which civilians have been killed as U.S. and Iraqi forces battle insurgents in residential areas. The U.S. command has accused insurgents of using women and children as “human shields.”

Neighbors disputed the military account, claiming the victims were members of a local family and that there were more extensive civilian casualties than the U.S. acknowledged. It was not possible to verify the conflicting accounts.

At least 68 other Iraqis were reported killed Sunday in violence across the country, many of them apparent victims of the civil war between Shiite Muslims and members of the Sunni Arab minority that dominated under Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. military reported six soldiers and one Marine killed in weekend combat.

The Department of Defense also confirmed the death of an Air Force pilot previously listed as missing after his F-16C fighter jet crashed Nov. 27 in Al Anbar province. DNA tests confirmed that remains from the crash site belonged to the pilot, a statement said.

At least 2,898 U.S. military deaths have been reported since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, according to the Web site icasualties.org.

Gaping craters and blood-stained rubble marked the spot of the raid late Saturday in a farming community on the outskirts of Karmah, in the same region as last week’s plane crash. Recent intelligence reports indicated one of the buildings targeted was being used to harbor foreign fighters, the U.S. command said in a statement Sunday.

U.S. forces decided an airstrike would provide the greatest safety for surrounding residents and allied forces by avoiding a firefight, the command said. However, the bodies of the two women and child were found after the blast along with those of five men.

Shortly before the strike, ground forces said they observed several insurgents moving to a nearby building. One other suspect was killed and three were detained during a search of that building, which also yielded small arms and munitions, the statement said.

The building was brought down when the cache was destroyed, the military said.

Neighbors interviewed at the site claimed the first house belonged to a family of 11, nine of whom were killed in the airstrike. They identified the victims as a woman and eight of her children. The woman’s husband and another child were injured and evacuated to Fallujah for treatment, they said.

“This is clear retaliation for the downing of the American fighter,” said Ihsan Luhaibi, who said he helped recover and bury the dead. “The American troops are acting in a hysterical manner. What sin has this family committed?”

The U.S. command said other residents thanked them for ridding the area of terrorists whom they claimed had killed several men in their village.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed by roadside bombs Saturday, two of them in Al Anbar and one near Taji, north of the capital, the U.S. command said. Two soldiers and a Marine died the same day of injuries sustained in combat in Al Anbar, and another soldier was killed Sunday in Baghdad, the military said.

At least 53 other bodies, many of them bound and showing signs of torture, were recovered in Baghdad in the 24 hours ending Sunday night, the Interior Ministry said.

Elsewhere Sunday, a car bomb exploded outside a row of shops in northeast Baghdad, killing three people and injuring 15, police said.