US forces open fire on Iraqi mosque: 15 killed

Residents of Nasaf, a town just outside Ramadi, west of Baghdad, said a roadside bomb exploded next to a US armoured patrol as it passed near the Ibn al-Jawzi mosque shortly after prayers on Friday.

Following the explosion, US troops opened fire, the residents said, shooting toward those emerging from the mosque.

Munem Aftan, the director of Ramadi General Hospital, said 15 people were killed, including eight children, and 17 wounded.

The US military denied troops had opened fire indiscriminately.

"Indiscriminate US fire on civilians? No, nothing even resembling this occurred," Captain Jeffrey Pool, a Marines spokesman in Ramadi, said in an e-mailed reply to questions.

He did not say whether an attack on a US patrol had occurred or whether any US troops were wounded.

The death toll was initially reported as two dead, but doctors said it had risen sharply overnight, with several of the severely wounded succumbing to their injuries.

Iraqi civilians frequently complain that US troops open fire indiscriminately after they are attacked. The US military says it does everything possible to avoid civilian casualties and is careful to respond to attacks in a measured fashion.

Human rights groups have documented scores of cases in which civilians have been shot and killed after approaching US military roadblocks too quickly, or not following instructions to keep away from US military convoys as they pass.