The US military has admitted its forces killed nine Iraqi civilians, including a child, during a weekend raid against al-Qaeda fighters south of Baghdad.
The raid was carried out on Saturday near the town of Iskandariyah, in an area southwest of Baghdad known as a hotbed of Iraq's violent insurgency.
Three more civilians were wounded in what the US said was an accidental attack. They were taken to nearby US military hospitals.
'We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life,' said a US statement
The announcement comes as a hardline group of Sunni clerics, known as the Muslim Scholars' Association, accuses the US military of killing a total of 20 civilians, but this was 'flatly denied' by the military.
The Muslim Scholars' Association claimed the US raid was carried out in al-Khanas, northeast of Iskandariyah.
'The site of the incident is well-known as a bastion of those who reject the occupation,' the group's statement declared.
