US troops kill 26 in Shiite raid
US soldiers killed 26 people before dawn today in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighbourhood, the military said.
The US military said the victims were terrorists who, during the raids, attacked American troops with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs. But Iraqi police and hospital officials said all the dead were civilians, killed in their homes.
The Iraqi officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, put the death toll at eight, with 20 wounded.
Seventeen suspected militants were also detained in the operation, which consisted of two separate raids, the US military said in a statement.
American troops entered the Shiite enclave in search of militants suspected of helping Iranian terror networks fund operations in Iraq, the statement said. There were no US casualties, it said.
Riding in armoured vehicles, US soldiers “used proper escalation of force rules to engage four civilian vehicles,” the statement said. It did not elaborate as to whether any of those killed were in the civilian cars.
According to Iraqi officials, the dead included three members of one family – a father, mother and son.
Houses, a bakery and some other shops were damaged by fire from US tanks during the operation, Iraqi officials said.
