US troops kill five Iraqis

American troops opened fire after their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb at a checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing at least two policemen and three civilians, police said today.

The incident comes a day after the US military acknowledged five people died when it bombed the wrong house during a search operation in northern Iraq.

The owner of the house, Ali Yousef, said 14 people were killed when the 500-pound GPS-guided bomb hit at about 2am on Saturday in the town of Aitha.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene said seven children and seven adults died, and discrepancy between the death counts could not immediately be reconciled.

The US military later released a statement saying it regretted the loss of “possibly innocent lives” in the strike, which occurred as US ground troops searched for ”an anti-Iraqi force cell leader.” American troops recently sent more troops to Mosul, which has seen heavy clashes in recent weeks between insurgents and American forces.

The attacks come at an extremely delicate time, with Iraq roiled by violence just weeks before Jan. 30 elections for a national assembly. The United States has insisted that the vote go ahead but does not want to appear too closely linked to Iraq’s interim government, many of whose members are candidates, or the electoral commission that is overseeing the ballot.

Earlier today a US soldier assigned to the Task Force Baghdad was killed in a roadside bomb explosion, the military said, although it did not say where the attack occurred.

The deputy police chief of Samarra, Col. Mohammed Mudhafir, has also been assassinated in a drive-by-shooting. Mudhafir was driving alone and he was dressed in civilian clothes when he was killed.