US airstrikes on a Shi?ite neighbourhood in Baghdad overnight killed at least 14 people and destroyed 11 houses, Iraqi police and residents said yesterday. The US military said US special forces called in the strikes after coming under fire from gunmen on rooftops during an operation against Shi?ite militants suspected of killing local police and Sunni Arabs.

It said the soldiers, accompanied by Iraqi Special Operations troops, directed aircraft to fire on two buildings where gunmen were holed up. Two other buildings sustained minor damage. ?The targeted Shi?ite extremists are part of a terrorist cell ... responsible for attacking local police and conducting illegal checkpoints to intimidate, extort and murder citizens. The teams also conducts extra-judicial killings of Sunnis,? the military said in a statement.

US and Iraqi forces have stepped up raids against Shi?ite militant cells in Baghdad as part of a crackdown on sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands. Two police sources said 14 people were killed and nine wounded in the air attack on Washash, a poor Shi?ite neighbourhood in western Baghdad?s Mansour district. They said the operation took place in the early hours.

Reuters television footage showed at least 11 buildings caved in or levelled in three adjoining streets in the densely packed neighbourhood, where fighters loyal to anti-American Shi?ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are known to operate.

A Reuters cameraman saw residents pulling the body of a woman from the rubble of one house, while a man picked up flesh from the street and placed it into a plastic bag. ?This is a catastrophe. We have pulled 24 bodies from the rubble,? said an official at Sadr?s office in Washash.

Residents said the aerial bombing was preceded by clashes between U.S. soldiers and gunmen. One man said soldiers had raided his home in search of a suspect and had confiscated mobile phones and separated the men from the women. Many residents were sleeping on the roofs of their houses, trying to keep cool in the oppressive summer heat, when the clashes erupted.

?We are a peaceful neighbourhood. Why is this happening to us?? said Abu Talib, an elderly man with a white beard. Wamidh Abdul Jabbar, a doctor, was sleeping with her children on the roof of her home when she heard machinegun fire.

?Then we heard the planes bombarding and the sound of buildings crashing. I took my children and we hid under the stairs,? she said. Many of the raids carried out by US forces concentrate on Sadr City, the sprawling slum that is a stronghold of Sadr?s Mehdi Army. The US military says rogue elements with links to Iran operate from there.

The US military?s use of attack helicopters and warplanes in Baghdad has angered the government in the past. In August, helicopters killed 18 people in Baghdad?s Shula district in clashes between US soldiers and Shi?ite militants.

30,000 more troops sent to Iraq

US President George W. Bush has sent 30,000 more troops to Iraq, swelling US troop numbers to more than 160,000, despite opposition from the Democrat-controlled Congress, which wants to start bringing soldiers home.

New tactics, including basing US troops in Baghdad neighbourhoods, have helped to sharply reduce the number of sectarian killings in the capital, although the overall death toll in Iraq is still high. The top American officials in Iraq, military commander General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, will testify before Congress next week on the success of the new strategy. Based on their recommendations, Bush is expected to look at maintaining or cutting troop levels.

Haider SALAHADDIN