2 Women, Child Die In U.S. Raid

U.S. soldiers destroyed two buildings being used by insurgents in a town in Anbar province, killing six militants, two women and a child, the military said Sunday.

It was the latest of several recent raids during which women or children have been killed or wounded by U.S. forces as they attacked insurgents in residential areas. In some of the attacks, the U.S. command accused the militants of using civilians as "human shields" or buildings as "safe houses."

On Saturday night in the town of Karmah, coalition ground and air forces killed six insurgents while destroying two buildings that militants were using, the military said. Searching through one of the destroyed buildings, coalition forces also found a weapons cache and the bodies of two women and a child, the military said, without providing the age of the women or the age and sex of the child. Three suspected insurgents also were detained.

Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, is in Anbar province, the large area of western Iraq where many of the country's Sunni Arab insurgent groups operate.

"Coalition forces take precautions to mitigate risks to civilians while in pursuit of terrorists. However, terrorists continue to put innocent civilians in danger by operating among them," the U.S. military statement said.

On Friday, near Taji, just north of Baghdad, American soldiers killed one insurgent and wounded a woman in her 50s "who was being used as human shield by the terrorist," the U.S. command said. "Terrorists continue to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence," it said.

On Wednesday, two Iraqi women died when U.S. forces backed by aircraft killed eight al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents during a raid near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

The day before, American soldiers fought with suspected insurgents in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, killing six Iraqis: one man and five girls, ages 7 months, 12, 14, 15 and 17, the U.S. command said. Another Iraqi woman was wounded. The military quoted residents as saying the building attacked "was a known anti-Iraqi force safe house."

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