US firing in Iraq claims 15 lives

An attack on a US military patrol followed by US gunfire left 15 Iraqis dead and 17 wounded in a town west of Baghdad, residents said on Saturday, but the US military said it was not responsible. Residents of Nasaf, a town just outside the city of Ramadi, 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.
They said US troops opened fire immediately after the explosion, shooting towards people emerging from the mosque.
Munem Aftan, the director of Ramadi General Hospital, said 15 people were killed, including eight children, and 17 wounded.
Pools of blood lay on the steps outside the mosque, and bullet holes marked its walls.
But the US military said its troops had not been involved in any firing in the area.
"US forces were not involved in any shooting incident in eastern Ramadi or anywhere near a mosque," Captain Jeffrey Pool, a spokesman for the Marines in Ramadi, said in an e-mail reply to written questions. "US forces were certainly not involved in any indiscriminate fire incident," he said.