Baghdad
At least 25 persons were killed and 40 wounded in a US raid on a
village near Baquba, north of the Iraqi capital, amid contradictory
accounts that describe the victims either as civilians or as
militants.
Independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency, citing a police
source, said at least 25 civilians were killed and 40 injured,
including women and children, when US airplanes attacked the Gezani
al-Imam village north-west of Baquba at dawn.
The number of casualties is most likely to increase as many bodies
had yet to be recovered from the civilian houses destroyed during
the attack, added the source, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity.
US helicopters fired a number of missiles against houses in the
village at dawn, local residents said.
But according to a statement by the US military, coalition forces
targeted a commander believed to be associated with members of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard - Quds Force - in the dawn operation.
Intelligence had indicated he was involved in criminal activity and
in helping the movement of various weapons from Iran to the Iraqi
capital, the statement added.
Coalition forces had come under heavy fire from armed men when they
entered the targeted area and returned fire, the US military said.
Coalition forces then called in air support in the gun battle.
But the al-Arabiya news broadcaster earlier said the armed men were
not likely to be terrorists and that they were carrying weapons to
protect themselves from militants who are spreading through the
city.
Diyala has become one of the most dangerous regions in recent months
in Iraq, with members of the Al-Qaeda terror network streaming into
the region from other areas of the country.
Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, is 60 km north of the Iraqi
capital Baghdad.
Meanwhile, VOI reported that two Shiite clerics were found murdered
in their homes over the past two days in the predominantly Shiite
city of Basra.
One of the victims taught at a religious school and the other at an
Islamic university, the report said.
The latest murders follow events in September when several
representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the supreme
spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, were murdered in Basra.
The murders triggered speculation that they were not carried out by
Sunnis, but rather by rival Shiite groups, possibly supported by
Iran.
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