Iraqi PM criticises US slum raid

Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki condemned a US raid in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City slum – a politically sensitive district for him – in which American troops searching for Iranian-linked militants sparked a firefight that left 26 Iraqis dead.

The US military said all those killed in the fighting yesterday were gunmen, some of them firing from behind civilian cars. But an Iraqi official put the death toll at eight and said they were civilians.