Sep 22, 2007, 14:36 GMT
Baghdad - The Voices of Iraq news agency reported that US forces in Iraq killed Saturday a family of seven, who were suspected of being connected to an armed militia.
The agency quoted an official source from Babel police department as saying the incident occurred in Alexandria north of Babel, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. The US forces are said to have shot the Iraqi family.
'The US forces then blew up the house,' the unnamed source claimed.
The US forces could not be reached for comment.
Voices of Iraq also reported that a car bomb exploded on Saturday afternoon near the Iranian consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad. No causalities were reported.
According to a witness, nearby buildings and houses were damaged in the explosion.
In another development, Iraq's biggest Sunni organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, said Saturday that a sectarian militia has killed four Sunni Iraqis in western Baghdad, in addition to looting and torching houses in the area.
In an internet statement, the Sunni association claimed that the attacks that targeted Sunnis happened last Thursday and caused the displacement of 50 families.
The US forces had reportedly arrived on the scene 24 hours later, and imposed a blanket curfew on the area known as Washash.
The incident, however, was not confirmed by official sources.
The Sunni association had earlier claimed responsibility for several attacks against Sunnis in Baghdad and had often blamed Shiite militias, mainly members of the so-called Mahdi Army loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. It had also blamed some attacks on multinational troops.
Meanwhile, joint US-Iraqi troops killed 10 gunmen, wounded another and arrested 16 suspected militants in a military operation in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, local news reports said, citing authorities.
According to Voices of Iraq, a spokesman for Diyala's so-called Operations Command said that the killing and arrests had taken place on Saturday morning across Baquba's Balour village, Aaskari neighbourhood and the Safar and Jalali areas.
Three caches of arms and ammunition were discovered during the operation, Staff Colonel Ragheb Radi al-Omiri told the local agency.
In a separate incident, an explosion targeted a police patrol in the Abara district in northern Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, wounding four civilians.
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