U.S. to 'investigate' report of children killed in Ramadi air strikes

Above: Residents evacuate bodies from the rubble of one of the houses destroyed in yesterday's 6-hour battle. Below: The body of a boy pulled from the rubble.

BAGHDAD, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday it was investigating whether civilians, including two children, were killed during a fierce gunbattle in Ramadi on Wednesday that ended with U.S. air strikes destroying several buildings.

U.S. Marine spokesman Lieutenant Shawn Mercer had said on Thursday there were no reports of civilian casualties but that U.S. forces had killed 12 insurgents in the six-hour battle in the volatile western city.

Iraqi officials in Ramadi said 26 people were killed, including some women and children, and a Reuters photographer saw the bodies of an infant and a young boy who had been pulled from the rubble of one of the demolished buildings.

Read the rest at Reuters

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