US forces opened fire from helicopters during an overnight clash with Shia militants in western Baghdad and killed at least 13 people, police said today.
US forces said a patrol had come under fire and that eight militants died in the clash.
A man grieves following clashes between US forces and suspected insurgents in Baghdad's Shula district. Image: Reuters.
Angry mourners took to the streets in the Shula district of the Iraqi capital, carrying wooden coffins of those killed in the clash.
The clash came while women and children were sleeping on rooftops to keep cool.
The political movement of anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said it would organise sit-ins across Baghdad if the US military continued to conduct raids on Shia districts. It said four women were killed in today's clash.
US troops have staged a number of raids, especially in Sadr's Sadr City stronghold in Baghdad, in pursuit of militant cells blamed for roadside bomb attacks on US forces.
In another raid in the town of Tarmiya north of the capital, US forces said they killed seven militants.
With just weeks to go before US ambassador Ryan Crocker and military commander General David Petraeus are to report to the US Congress on progress in Iraq, intelligence agencies released a grim forecast of violence and stalemate.
"Levels of insurgent and sectarian violence will remain high, and the Iraqi government will continue to struggle to achieve national-level political reconciliation and improved governance," declassified findings of the National Intelligence Estimate said.