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| There has been fierce fighting in Ramadi (file) |
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Five girls and a baby have been killed in a US raid on a house in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, the US military has told Al Jazeera.
The US military said two armed men had opened fire from the roof of a house on a US patrol disarming a roadside bomb, prompting the soldiers to reply with tank fire on Tuesday.
Following the pre-dawn barrage, US troops carried out "an extensive search of the house and found one male and five females, ages ranging from infant to teenaged, dead", the statement said.
The US military blamed the fighters for the incident.
The raid resulted in no US casualties.
"It was reported that one of the insurgents was wounded and other insurgents came to remove him from the scene," the US military statement said.
Tragedy
Captain Frank Pasqual, a spokesman for US central command, told Al Jazeera: "What we're looking at is a terrible case of insurgents planting bombs and using civilians as shields which resulted in an ambush and terrible tragedy."
Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Salas, a US marine spokesman, said: "Efforts are under way to co-ordinate and offer available assistance to surviving family members.
"The concern is loss of innocent life."
Ramadi is in Anbar province, scene of some of the fiercest fighting between US forces and fighters.
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Source: |
Al Jazeera and agencies
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