US air strike in Baghdad kills 14 people: police

BAGHDAD – US airstrikes on a Shi’ite neighbourhood in Baghdad overnight killed at least 14 people and destroyed 11 houses, Iraqi police and residents said yesterday.

The US military said US special forces called in the strikes after coming under fire from gunmen on rooftops during an operation against Shi’ite militants suspected of killing local police and Sunni Arabs. It said the soldiers, accompanied by Iraqi Special Operations troops, directed aircraft to fire on two buildings where gunmen were holed up.Two other buildings sustained minor damage.”The targeted Shi’ite extremists are part of a terrorist cell …responsible for attacking local police and conducting illegal checkpoints to intimidate, extort and murder local citizens.The teams also conducts extra-judicial killings of Sunnis,” the military said in a statement.US and Iraqi forces have stepped up raids against Shi’ite militant cells in Baghdad as part of a crackdown on sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.Two police sources said 14 people were killed and nine wounded in the air attack on Washash, a poor Shi’ite neighbourhood in western Baghdad’s Mansour district.They said the operation took place in the early hours.Reuters television footage showed at least 11 buildings caved in or levelled in three adjoining streets in the densely packed neighbourhood, where fighters loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are known to operate.A Reuters cameraman saw residents pulling the body of a woman from the rubble of one house, while one man picked up flesh from the street and placed it into a plastic bag.”This is a catastrophe.We have pulled 24 bodies from the rubble,” said an official at Sadr’s office in Washash who declined to be named.Residents said the aerial bombing was preceded by clashes between US soldiers and gunmen.One man said soldiers had raided his home in search of a suspect and had confiscated mobile phones and separated the men from the women.Many residents were sleeping on the roofs of their houses, trying to keep cool in the oppressive summer heat, when the clashes erupted.Nampa-ReutersIt said the soldiers, accompanied by Iraqi Special Operations troops, directed aircraft to fire on two buildings where gunmen were holed up.Two other buildings sustained minor damage.”The targeted Shi’ite extremists are part of a terrorist cell …responsible for attacking local police and conducting illegal checkpoints to intimidate, extort and murder local citizens.The teams also conducts extra-judicial killings of Sunnis,” the military said in a statement.US and Iraqi forces have stepped up raids against Shi’ite militant cells in Baghdad as part of a crackdown on sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.Two police sources said 14 people were killed and nine wounded in the air attack on Washash, a poor Shi’ite neighbourhood in western Baghdad’s Mansour district.They said the operation took place in the early hours.Reuters television footage showed at least 11 buildings caved in or levelled in three adjoining streets in the densely packed neighbourhood, where fighters loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are known to operate.A Reuters cameraman saw residents pulling the body of a woman from the rubble of one house, while one man picked up flesh from the street and placed it into a plastic bag.”This is a catastrophe.We have pulled 24 bodies from the rubble,” said an official at Sadr’s office in Washash who declined to be named.Residents said the aerial bombing was preceded by clashes between US soldiers and gunmen.One man said soldiers had raided his home in search of a suspect and had confiscated mobile phones and separated the men from the women.Many residents were sleeping on the roofs of their houses, trying to keep cool in the oppressive summer heat, when the clashes erupted.Nampa-Reuters