Women and child killed in Iraq firefight

Iraqi forces backed by a US helicopter battled Sunni gunmen south of Baghdad yesterday, and at least 11 combatants died. US troops killed five Iraqis - including two women and a child – in a separate exchange of fire.

An extended ban on vehicles held down violence in Baghdad after one of the most violent weeks in the capital this year, but four people were wounded by a bomb outside a Sunni mosque, police said.