US airstrike in Iraq kills 8, including women, child

BAGHDAD, Dec 3 (Reuters) A US airstrike destroyed a foreign fighter safe house in a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, killing five insurgents, two women and a child, the US military said today.

The raids were in the Garma area, near Falluja, where an F- 16 jet crashed last week during heavy fighting between Sunni insurgents and U.S. forces. Its pilot's body disappeared from the crash site, possibly spirited away by rebel fighters.

Residents in the village of al-Lihaib near Garma told a local Iraqi journalist that one house was levelled in last night's air raid, killing nine members of the same family -- three women, three girls and three boys -- and wounding a man.

The journalist said he had seen three of the bodies, those of a 4-year-old boy, 16-year-old boy, and 5-year-old girl.

''We expected an intensified US presence in the area after the crash of the aircraft to look for the missing soldiers,'' Ahmed Mohammed of Garma police told Reuters.

He said 20 people had been killed in the air strikes, but this figure could not be independently confirmed.

The US military said the house was targeted after intelligence reports suggested it was being used as a hideout for foreign fighters.

''Intelligence reports also verified that several men were present at the targeted building during the time of the raid,'' the military said in a statement.

''After the air strike destroyed the building, Coalition forces were able to determine that five terrorists, along with two women and one child, were killed,'' it said.

It said a sixth insurgent had been killed and three detained by ground forces and a second house destroyed.

''Coalition forces take precautions to mitigate risks to civilians while in pursuit of terrorists. However, terrorists continue to put innocent civilians in danger by operating among them,'' it said.

The village is in rebellious Anbar province, where the three-year-old Sunni insurgency against US forces and the Shi'ite-led government is fiercest.

Airstrikes are a common tactic used by US forces in Iraq, especially on buildings where insurgents are holed up. But they have sometimes resulted in civilian casualties or given rise to claims that some people's homes have been wrongly targeted.

REUTERS SP PM1930