18 killed in clash in Iraq's Samarra: US
Baghdad,
Aug
27:
US
forces
said
they
killed
18
insurgents
in
air
strikes
and
gunbattles
in
the
Iraqi
city
of
Samarra
today
after
fighters
attacked
them,
while
police
said
five
children
and
two
women
were
among
the
dead.
Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Donnelly, spokesman for US forces in northern Iraq, said about 30 gunmen, some in cars, had attacked US troops in the Tigris River valley city, which has been the scene of fighting between US forces and al Qaeda militants.
US 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 US 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.''
REUTERS>