'11 family members killed' in US raid in Iraq

Eleven members of an Iraqi family were killed in a US raid today, police and witnesses said.

Eleven members of an Iraqi family were killed in a US raid today, police and witnesses said.

The US military said two women and a child died during the attempt to seize an al-Qaeda militant from a house.

Television pictures showed 11 bodies in the Tikrit morgue - five children, two men and four women.

A freelance photographer later saw the bodies being buried in Ishaqi, the town 100 km north of Baghdad where the raid took place.

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The US military said in a statement its troops had attacked a house in Ishaqi early today to capture a "foreign fighter facilitator for the al-Qaeda in Iraq network".

"Troops were engaged by enemy fire as they approached the building," US spokesman Major Tim Keefe said.

"Coalition Forces returned fire utilising both air and ground assets.

"There was one enemy killed. Two women and one child were also killed in the firefight. The building ... (was) destroyed."

Photographs of the funeral showed men weeping as five children were wrapped in blankets and then lined up in a row next to freshly dug graves.