Three women and three children were among those killed during the operation targeting a wanted man in Mosul, some 390 km north of Baghdad.

"This is just another tragic example of how Al Qaida in Iraq hides behind innocent Iraqis," Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll, spokesman for US forces in Iraq, said in a statement.

The statement said that US forces exchanged fire with armed men as they entered the building, but a military spokesman said all the Iraqis were killed by the bomb.

The US soldiers later found weapons and explosives in the building, the statement said.


Agencies