By Xinhua
Baghdad : U.S. troops killed seven people and detained 12 others during a raid in the town of Iskandriyah, some 50 km south of Baghdad, on Saturday, a local police source said.
“U.S. troops raided the house of Ahmed Tawfiq Abdul Kazem in the town before dawn and killed seven of his guests,” the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The guests were said to be Shiite pilgrims who came from Baghdad en route to the holy city of Karbala, 110 km south of the capital, according to the source.
The troops also detained 12 others and destroyed parts of the house, he added.
The source said that U.S. troops likely have received intelligence reports that Kazem’s guests were Shiite militiamen to take part in the ongoing sectarian fighting between Sunni and Shiite communities in the town.
Iskandriyah, along with several large towns in the Babil province, is part of an area known as the “Triangle of Death” which is the hot bed of sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite inhabitants.