USA

Civilians die during US raid in Mosul

Sunday 05 October 2008

Eleven Iraqis were killed, including three women and three children, when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest during a US raid on a house in northern Mosul, the US military said.

MOSUL, Iraq, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Eleven Iraqis were killed on Sunday during a U.S. raid on a home in northern Iraq in which a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest among civilians inside, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. military spokesman said it was not clear how many of the victims died as a result of the bomb blast and how many as a result of shooting.

Three women and three children were among those killed during the raid, which targeted a wanted man in Mosul, some 390 km (240 miles), north of Baghdad.

A U.S. statement said that U.S. forces exchanged fire with armed men as they entered the building in pursuit of the wanted man, and the bomber detonated his vest shortly after.

"At this point, we are not sure if each died specifically from gunshot wounds, effects from the blast or a combination of both," U.S. Lieutenant Commander David Russell said in an email.

Another U.S. spokesman had earlier said he believed all the Iraqi deaths were caused by the suicide bomber.

Qais Ahmed, a doctor in the Mosul morgue that received the bodies of those killed in the raid, said most of the corpses bore evidence of injuries both from a blast and from gunfire.

"The bodies were received by the morgue, all carrying injuries (apparently from an explosion) and gunshot wounds, except the bodies of the three women. They bear no injuries, just gunshot wounds," he said.

Russell could not confirm whether any U.S. soldiers had been killed or injured in the raid.

The U.S. soldiers later found weapons and explosives in the building, the military said.