US air strike kills 8 near Baghdad - military

BAGHDAD, Feb 9 (Reuters) A US air strike killed 8 insurgents near Baghdad yesterday, the US military said today.

It said US forces were conducting a raid in the Arab Jbour area near Baghdad when they came under heavy fire and had to call in air support.

''Eight terrorists barricaded themselves inside one of the buildings and continued to fire at the ground forces,'' a statement said.

''Coalition aircraft dropped precision bombs on the building, resulting in its destruction and the deaths of the eight terrorists,'' it said.

Also yesterday, US forces said they killed 13 insurgents in an air strike targeting a ''senior foreign fighter facilitator'' northeast of the town of Ameriya, near Falluja, in an area where there is a strong presence of Sunni insurgents.

A doctor at a local hospital said 30 bodies, including those of seven children, had been brought in from the village of Zaidan, near Ameriya.

Reuters SY GC1510