Friday, 19 September 2008

US air strike kills eight civilians in Iraq: police


Eight civilians, three of them women, were killed in a US air strike near executed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's central hometown of Tikrit on Friday, police and witnesses said.

The pre-dawn air raid occurred in the village of Al-Dawr.

"Eight people, five men and three women -- were killed by a US air strike targeting their home. They are all members of the same family," First Lieutenant Firaz al-Duri from the Al-Dawr police told AFP.

Several Iraqi police and army officers from Tikrit, the capital of Salaheddin province, confirmed the raid.

Witnesses said the attack came after US troops surrounded the compound.

The US military when contacted said it was looking into the reports of the strike.

The US has regularly ordered investigations after incidents involving the deaths of Iraqi civilians, but the results of these probes are rarely published.

According to independent estimates, about 95,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

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