US says kills 18 in clash in Iraq's Samarra
IRAQ: U.S. forces said they killed 18 insurgents in air
strikes and gunbattles in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Sunday after
fighters attacked them, while police said five children and two women
were among the dead.
Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Donnelly, spokesman for U.S. forces in
northern Iraq, said about 30 gunmen, some in cars, had attacked U.S.
troops in the Tigris River valley city, which has been the scene of
fighting between U.S. forces and al Qaeda militants.
U.S. forces dropped a bomb on a car shelter where some militants were
getting into a vehicle and opened fire from helicopters with machine
guns on another vehicle, he said. Earlier Donnelly had said the bomb
struck a house, but he said that no longer appeared to have been the
case.
"We estimate 18 dead insurgents," he said in an e-mail. "No civilians
we know (of) at this point, very well could be."
Saadoun Mohammad, a police officer at Samarra General Hospital, said
the hospital's morgue had received the bodies of five children and two
women killed in a U.S. air strike. He said eight people were wounded,
including three children and a woman.
Donnelly said any civilian casualties were the fault of the
insurgents.
"These thugs were firing errantly and with no regard for harmless
Iraqi civilians nearby," he said.
"It is these heartless and hateful terrorists we aimed to defeat and
marginalise in the interest of bringing peace and security to the Iraqi
people."
Baghdad, Monday, Reuters |