AP: Report of U-S aircraft bombing houses in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq The U-S military says it's looking into a report that U-S aircraft bombed houses near the west Baghdad office of a leading member of a key Sunni political bloc.

Police say four members of a family were killed and a guard at the house of a former Shiite member of parliament was wounded. The ex-member of parliament abandoned her home after escaping an assassination attempt last year.

Meantime, a series of 16 explosions, apparently from large mortar rounds, rang out in central Baghdad before sunrise. No word on any casualties.

LinkHere
edit: Just found Reuters report on this air attack

BAGHDAD, Jan 1 (Reuters) - U.S. forces said they were fired on from an office building belonging to a leading Sunni Arab politician during a raid on a suspected al Qaeda safehouse in Baghdad on Monday in which six insurgents were killed.

Saleh al-Mutlaq, an outspoken member of parliament whose Iraqi National Dialogue group is part of the U.S.-backed political process, said U.S. forces had targeted his office, killing two security guards and wounding two more.

Speaking to Reuters by telephone from outside Iraq, Mutlaq also said a family of four, including two children, were killed in an adjacent building during the raid on Monday.

He said the raid was a provocation and said the U.S.-backed government should be targeting Shi'ite militias blamed for operating death squads rather than his political party.

Asked about reports of civilian casualties, a U.S. military spokesman said by email: "We are not aware of any civilians being injured or killed in this morning's raid. Coalition Forces returned fire against armed terrorists only. The terrorists killed were armed males firing at Coalition Forces."
Mutlaq's group is one of several Sunni Arab parties in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national unity government, which also includes majority Shi'ites and ethnic Kurds.

Mutlaq has warned brutal U.S. tactics are radicalising Sunni Arabs and swelling the ranks of al Qaeda and has urged Maliki's government to focus on cracking down on Shi'ite militias blamed by Washington and Sunni Arabs for operating death squads.

"I don't know why they are targeting us and not the militias. We don't have militias, we are the only front that doesn't have a militia," Mutlaq said. "They want to involve us in a war and to stop the political process."

LinkHere

The US is now trying to deny they bombed, trying to say ground forces attacked

The U.S. military said ground forces raided the buildings, acting on intelligence reports that the location was used as a possible safe house for al-Qaida in Iraq. Six people were killed and one suspect was detained, the military said.

But police described the incident as an airstrike that killed four members of a family and wounded a guard outside al-Khafaji's house.

Associated Press Television News footage showed masses of rubble in the area and what appeared to be a long smear of blood where a body had been dragged across the floor of one of the buildings.

Walls in the buildings were pitted with what looked to be the impact of bullets and shrapnel.

LinkHere

Sunni lawmaker says enemies gave U.S. military bad info, sparking raid

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A Sunni lawmaker says a U.S. military raid on his Baghdad office that killed six people was based on false information from his enemies in an effort to "settle scores with me."

The U.S. military said the Monday morning raid on a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq safehouse killed six terrorists and netted a seventh.

But Salih al-Mutlaq told CNN those killed included two of his guards and a family of four living next to his office. The Sunni lawmaker said no one killed in the raid had any affiliation to the terror group.

He said he believes the raid was based on false information because of his criticism of the Shia-dominated Iraqi government.

According to the U.S. military, coalition forces targeted a building in Baghdad that intelligence indicated was being used as a possible safe house for al Qaeda in Iraq.

LinkHere (Posted 8:17 a.m.)