Iraqi police said at least six children and eight women were among at least two dozen people killed in a US air strike today.
An Iraqi police official said US aircraft bombed two homes around 1am at Ishaqi, 90 kilometres north of Baghdad.
However, a US military spokesman claimed the raid by US ground troops with air support killed 20 al-Qaeda suspects in the Thar Thar area of Salahaddin province and that weapons were recovered.
The US military said ground forces with air support killed 18 men and two women, all suspected al Qaeda militants. But Iraqi officials, including police, said they found the bodies of 17 civilians.
Journalists were shown the bodies of five children.
Meanwhile, a car bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint in the town of Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) north of Baghdad, killed three civilians and wounded 15 people, police said.