(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-05 22:03

Baghdad - US forces backed by attack aircraft killed at least 25 Shiite militia fighters north of Baghdad Friday in an operation targeting a cell accused of smuggling weapons from Iran, the military said.

A US soldier stands guard during a joint patrol with Iraqi forces to Khadraa district in Baghdad October 4, 2007. [Agencies]

An Iraqi army official claimed civilians, including seven children, were among those killed in the raid, which the US said targeted the commander of a militia group believed to be associated with the Quds Force, an elite branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Navy Adm. Mike Mullen met Iraq's prime minister on a visit to Baghdad on Friday and urged Iraqis to seize the opportunity of improved security.

"I see a tremendous amount of change and progress since I was here before," Mullen told reporters after discussions with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Iraqi capital. "But we still face significant challenges in progress and security."

In Friday's pre-dawn raid in Khalis, a Shiite enclave about 50 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on the soldiers with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and at least one man was carrying what appeared to be an anti-aircraft weapon, the military said. Ground forces called for air support when the fighters kept coming, the military said. Two buildings were destroyed in airstrikes, it said.

An Iraqi army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said US aircraft bombed the neighborhood repeatedly and he claimed civilians, including seven children, were among those killed and three children were among the 28 wounded.

He said the civilians were killed when families rushed out to help those hurt in the initial bombing.

The town's top official said US forces targeted areas built up by locals to protect their Shiite neighborhood against attacks by al-Qaida gunmen. The guards were armed and worked around the clock, he said.

"These places came under attack by American airstrikes," said Khalis Mayor Odai al-Khadran. "Locals were protecting themselves by guarding their village. They are not militias killing people."

Since launching a Baghdad security crackdown more than seven months ago, US troops have increasingly battled splinter groups from the country's most powerful Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army is nominally loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric, who in August ordered a temporary freeze on his followers' activities -- including attacks on US troops.

The US military describes the splinter factions as "extremist" or "criminal" militiamen.

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