American pre-dawn air raid kills eight Iraqi civilians - five men and three women – from same family.


TIKRIT, Iraq - Eight civilians, three of them women, were killed in a US air strike near Saddam Hussein's central hometown of Tikrit on Friday, police and witnesses said.

The pre-dawn air raid occurred in the village of Al-Dawr, where Saddam was captured by US forces in December 2003.

"Eight people -- five men and three women -- were killed by a US air strike targeting their home. They are all members of the same family," First Lieutenant Firaz al-Duri from the Al-Dawr police said.

Several Iraqi police and army officers from Tikrit, the capital of Salaheddin province, confirmed the raid.

Witnesses said the attack came after US troops surrounded the compound.

The US military when contacted said it was looking into the reports of the strike.

The US has regularly ordered investigations after incidents involving the deaths of Iraqi civilians, but the results of these probes are rarely published.

According to independent estimates, about 650,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

In January, the Iraqi government and the World Health Organisation estimated that between 104,000 and 223,000 civilians and military personnel had been killed in the country since the invasion.

US violence against civilians is said to be one of the reasons fueling the insurgency in Iraq and has contributed to the anti-American sentiments in the Muslim World.

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