U.S., Iraqi police in dispute over deadly airstrike

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Police said a U.S. airstrike killed a family of six in northern Iraq, but the U.S. military described it as an attack targeting insurgents that killed one "armed terrorist."

Police said Tuesday night's strike, just north of Tikrit, also wounded four people.

Police said a man went outside and fired warning shots after hearing people moving around his house. U.S. troops thought it was hostile fire and responded.

The U.S. military said troops were targeting al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents "when they were attacked by small-arms fire."

The troops returned fire and surrounded nearby buildings when they saw an armed man enter one of them, the military said. U.S.-led coalition forces surrounded the buildings and urged the man to come out, but he refused, according to a military statement.

"Forces perceived hostile intent," the military said, and called in air support. A subsequent airstrike destroyed the building.

The military said police identified the man as an "armed terrorist" and found no other casualties. It said four women in another building received minor injuries in the strike.

Other deaths Wednesday also brought conflicting accounts from U.S. and Iraqi officials.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said U.S. soldiers shot dead a male banker and two female employees when they were driving to work in western Baghdad.

But Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a U.S. military spokesman, said a military convoy had come under fire in a drive-by shooting. Soldiers returned fire and struck a vehicle that swerved off the road, struck a wall and caught fire. Stover said three "militants" were killed and that a civilian witness has emerged to corroborate the sequence of events.

Meanwhile, a roadside bombing killed three U.S. soldiers in northern Iraq, bringing the number of American troop deaths this week in the country to seven.

The latest deaths occurred late Tuesday in Nineveh province, where fighting has raged for days as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers step up their operations against al Qaeda in Iraq.

An interpreter also was killed in the roadside bombing.

Earlier Tuesday, two soldiers were killed in a blast that rocked a municipal building in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Two employees from the Defense and State departments also were slain.

The U.S. military has blamed Special Groups, the name it uses for Iranian-backed militants, for that blast. An Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said the attackers were targeting Baghdad City Council representatives, not coalition troops.

On Monday, an Iraqi councilman opened fire and killed two U.S. soldiers at a ceremony near Baghdad.

The spate of killings -- which comes as U.S. and Iraqi officials tout a dramatic drop in violence -- reflects the challenges that persist in achieving stability in Iraq.

So far in June, there have been 25 U.S. troop deaths, a low total in comparison to earlier months of the war. May's death toll of 19 was the lowest monthly total of the war. May 2007 saw 125 troop deaths, while there were 101 the next month.

Since the war began, 4,109 U.S. service members have died in Iraq.

Violence has flared in Nineveh province and its capital of Mosul as Iraqi and U.S. forces square off with Sunni militants from al Qaeda in Iraq.

Late Tuesday, a suicide car bomb detonated near a police station in central Mosul, killing at least two people, including a child, and wounding at least 70, Mosul police said.

It was the second suicide car bombing in Mosul this week. Another such attack took place near a police checkpoint Sunday in eastern Mosul, wounding at least 14 people.

A Mosul municipal official and his driver were gunned down Wednesday, police said.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of Iraq, the country's armed forces seized wanted militants and weapons, while the government offered an amnesty plan to militants, according to an Iraqi military official.

Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said Wednesday the amnesty offer in Maysan province gave militants a week to surrender to authorities through their sheikhs and pledge to quit militant activities.

Troops have so far netted 95 wanted individuals and scores of weapons and munitions along waterways and in towns, al-Askari said. Many suspects fled the province -- a predominantly Shiite region that borders Iran and is thought to be an area of transit for Iranian weapons into Iraq.

"We captured some of the fleeing wanted individuals, and we are focusing on making Maysan a weapons-free zone," al-Askari said.

Many people in Maysan and its capital, Amara, are backers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement and have been affiliated with his militia, the Mehdi Army.

Other developments

• A parked car bomb killed three Iraqis and wounded seven others Wednesday when it detonated near an ice cream shop in central Baghdad's Karrada district, an Interior Ministry official said.

• Troops conducting an operation near Taji, just north of Baghdad, captured a wanted bombing cell leader. The military said a man in a building targeted by troops suffered a fatal heart attack.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.

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