US military says it accidentally killed 9 Iraqi civilians in raid south of Baghdad

Meanwhile, Turkish fighter jets bombed suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts Monday in northern Iraq, a senior Kurdish official said. No casualties were reported.

The civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, U.S. Navy Lt. Patrick Evans told The Associated Press. Three wounded civilians were taken to U.S. military hospitals nearby, he said.

Evans did not give details about exactly how the people died, but said the killings occurred as U.S. forces pursued suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants. The incident is under investigation, he said.

Iraqi police said the victims, including two women, were in two houses in the village of Tal al-Samar, which was bombed by American warplanes late Saturday. They were all Sunni members of the al-Ghrir tribe, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

The U.S. airstrike occurred after an American convoy came under enemy fire in Tal al-Samar and soldiers called for air support, the Iraqi officer said.

Shortly after the incident, American officers met with a Muslim sheik representing citizens in the area, Evans said.

"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life," he said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.

In November, a leader of one of the so-called awakening councils _ groups of Sunni tribesmen allied with American forces who are fighting to oust al-Qaida from their hometowns _ said U.S. soldiers killed dozens of his fighters during a 12-hour battle north of Baghdad.

The leader, Mansour Abid Salim of the Taji Awakening Council, accused American troops of mistaking his men for militants. The U.S. military admitted killing 25 men, but said they were insurgents operating "in the target area" where al-Qaida was believed to be hiding.

The U.S. military investigated that incident, but the two versions of events were never reconciled.

A month later, the U.S. military said its forces accidentally killed two people during a raid in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, and that one of them was later revealed to be an awakening council member.

The Turkish bombing raid lasted one hour early Monday, in an area inside Iraq along the country's northern border with Turkey, said Jabbar Yawar, an undersecretary for the ministry governing Kurdish protection forces known as peshmerga. The area includes the towns of Khnera, Khwakurd and Sidakan in Irbil province, he said.

Yawar said there were no civilian or peshmerga casualties in the mostly abandoned area.

Turkey has frequently targeted members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in cross-border raids into Iraqi territory, where thousands of the rebels are based. The PKK uses its strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes into Turkey.

Monday's attack was the fifth such aerial raid since Dec. 16. Turkey's military says the raids have inflicted heavy losses on the PKK, killing as many as 175 rebels and destroying command and logistic centers, shelters, and ammunition depots.

The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey for more than two decades, in a campaign that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

The rebel group is believed to have a large base in Khnera, where Turkish planes struck Monday. It was unclear whether the base was damaged.

On Sunday, Turkish troops killed 10 separatist Kurdish rebels in clashes in southeastern Turkey, according to a Turkish military official.

The United States _ which with Turkey and the European Union considers the PKK a terrorist organization _ has cautioned Ankara against a large incursion into Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, fearing it could disrupt one of Iraq's more stable regions.

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