U.S.-Iraqi raid kills at least 6

BAGHDAD – At least six Iraqis were killed during a joint Iraqi-American counterterrorism operation on the outskirts of Fallujah on Wednesday, in the deadliest incident involving U.S. troops since the United States declared an end to its combat operations in Iraq on Aug. 31.

Iraqi officials said eight civilians were killed, while the U.S. military said four suspected members of al-Qaida in Iraq and two civilians died in a firefight that erupted as forces tried to capture a suspected member of the militant group who was allegedly responsible for attacks in the region.

The U.S. soldiers were sent as advisers to the Iraqi troops. Despite the official end of the U.S. combat mission, roughly 4,500 U.S. Special Operations forces remain in Iraq.

Iraqi officials in Anbar province said U.S. and Iraqi forces began raiding houses at 3 a.m. in Jubil, about 30 miles west of Baghdad. Among those killed, they said, were a 70-year-old man and three of his sons, who were all asleep in their yard when they were killed by a grenade. A fourth son died later at a hospital, the Iraqi officials said.

Troops also entered a second house in the area and killed a former Iraqi military commander, Yaseen Kassar, Iraqi officials said, as well as two more people in a third house.

The incident could heighten tensions in Anbar province, which was among the strongholds of the Sunni insurgency between 2004 and 2007. As U.S. troops have thinned out in recent months, insurgent groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq have sought to regain a foothold there.

“The security situation in Fallujah may deteriorate because of what happened today,” Abdulfattah Izghear, a local city council member, said.