The US military has confirmed it is investigating whether civilians, including two children, were killed during a fierce gunbattle in Ramadi on Wednesday that ended with US air strikes destroying several buildings.
Residents search for bodies in the rubble of houses destroyed during clashes between US forces and insurgents in Ramadi.
US Marine spokesman Lieutenant Shawn Mercer had said yesterday there were no reports of civilian casualties, claiming that US forces had killed 12 insurgents in the six-hour battle in the volatile western city.
However, Iraqi officials speaking in Ramadi said 26 people were killed, including some women and children.
A Reuters photographer saw the bodies of an infant and a young boy who had been pulled from the rubble of one of the demolished buildings.
"There was a claim we're looking into right now as to a number of civilian casualties," US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver told reporters in Baghdad today.
"The Marines did not at first think there were civilian casualties."
Garver said insurgents were "firmly entrenched" in several buildings and there was a long exchange of fire with US forces who used heavy weapons and then called in air strikes to destroy the buildings where the insurgents were based.