US combat helicopters and tanks bombarded a Baghdad neighbourhood in pre-dawn strikes on Thursday, killing 14 sleeping civilians and destroying houses, angry residents and Iraqi officials said.
The US military, which has deployed thousands of extra troops in the Iraqi capital to try to stem rampant violence, said the operation was aimed at Shiite extremists and the houses destroyed were "enemy strongholds."
Iraqi defence and interior ministry officials said US helicopters fired on houses in the Al-Washash neighbourhood of Mansour district in west Baghdad between 2:00 am and 3:00 am.
Abu Ali Saad, a resident of the mainly Shiite enclave, said US military vehicles had arrived in large numbers in Al-Washash during the night.
"There were tanks and armoured vehicles and many troops," 35-year-old Saad told AFP while surveying the rubble of his neighbour's house.
"The tanks started firing then the helicopters came. Missiles were fired from the air. Houses were destroyed. A family of five were killed in this house," he said, referring to his neighbours.
"We are a peaceful neighbourhood. There are no militia here. There were no exchanges of fire. We were all sleeping."
A US military statement said Iraqi and US forces had engaged Shiite extremist militants who were part of a "terrorist cell" operating in Al-Washash.
When Iraqi and US forces entered the area they came under fire from "more than a dozen extremists firing from the rooftops of surrounding buildings," the statement said.
The fire was returned and air strikes were carried out against "positively identified armed gunmen directing small arms fires on to the assault force."
"A total of four buildings were damaged, including two enemy strongholds that sustained major damage and two surrounding buildings that sustained moderate damage," the statement said.
It did not detail the number of people killed in the operation but said the Iraqi and US forces suffered no casualties.
An AFP photographer on the scene said three houses were destroyed and two damaged.
Amid the rubble of one house was a mattress covered in blood with human body parts scattered about. Neighbours said a family of six had been killed in the house, including a 12-year-old girl.
Bloodstains could also be seen amid the wreckage of the other houses, where angry residents gathered to denounce the US military.
"They prevented me from trying to get two of my wounded neighbours to hospital," said Ammar Assem. "They fired on my car when I tried to leave the area. I had to go back."
Washington has deployed an extra 28,500 troops as part of a "surge" in Baghdad and surrounding areas aimed at quelling sectarian violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis since it erupted 18 months ago.
The latest killings come just days before the White House is to make a formal report to the Democratic-controlled Congress aimed at persuading US lawmakers to continue funding the Iraq war.
In other violence, a bomb exploded near a line of workers seeking daily employment in Baghdad's southeastern Zafaraniya district, killing one worker and wounding five, a defence ministry official said.
In Tikrit, 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Baghdad, a car bomb aimed at a police patrol killed two civilians and wounded 17, police said.
In Hawra Haajab village on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, meanwhile, two suspected members of Al-Qaeda were killed and two captured during an operation launched early Thursday by a US cavlary unit, according to Captain Chad Klascius who is leading the assault.
"We've moved into the town and are taking it back. We are trying to push Al-Qaeda out,," Klascius told AFP. "We are shooting machine guns and they are returning fire as well as shooting mortar rounds.
"We have killed two Al-Qaeda and have around 30 detainees, two of whom have confessed to being Al-Qaeda," the captain said.
