US troops kill 9 after attacked - Iraqi police

DULUIYA, Iraq, Mar 19 (Reuters) US troops killed nine people, including a family, after their patrol was ambushed in an Iraqi town early today, Iraqi police said.

Police said three of the victims were a man and a woman and their 13-year-old son who were shot dead when US soldiers entered their house in the Sunni town of Duluiya, about 90 km north of Baghdad.

Police described three other victims as young men, but it was not immediately clear whether they were militants or civilians. Six people were also wounded in the fighting and seven detained for questioning, they said.

The US military did not immediately respond to a request for information from Reuters.

A Reuters reporter in the town said there was heavy gunfire and explosions from 2 am local time until 4 am When the fighting died down, residents emerged from their homes as US troops backed by armoured fighting vehicles occupied the town.

The reporter said several houses had been damaged in the fighting.

He said the U.S. troops had handed out leaflets saying they did not regard Sunnis as their enemy and that they wanted to withdraw from Iraq as soon as the country's newly formed army was able to stand on its own feet.

Sunni Arab insurgents are waging a campaign against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led interim government.

REUTERS SB PM1352