An American helicopter opened fire on a group of men as they were planting roadside bombs in a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad on Tuesday, then chased them into a nearby house, killing 11 Iraqis, including at least six civilians, the military said.
The men were seen placing the bombs near the volatile northern city of Samarra, said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a military spokeswoman, according to the AP. An Apache helicopter "engaged these enemy forces, and the enemy forces ran into a house and took over the structure," she said, adding the attack aircraft continued to fire at the suspects as they tried to escape.
Six civilians and five military-aged men were killed and five people were injured and evacuated to a hospital in nearby Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, she said.
Police and witnesses said 14 people were killed, including four women and eight children. Dhurgham Hamid, a man from the area that was hit, said the dead included a man who was a supervisor at the provincial education directorate, and his wife, an accountant at the agency.
It was the third claim of civilian casualties from U.S. airstrikes in as many days, raids that have prompted complaints that too many ordinary Iraqis are losing their lives.
In other violence Tuesday, a gunfight at a police checkpoint in western Baghdad killed an officer and a gunman, and wounded two officers and three gunmen.
