House mistakenly bombed

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The United States said one of its warplanes mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on a house in a village near the northern city of Mosul yesterday, killing several Iraqis.

The airstrike by an F-16 fighter plane early yesterday on the village of Aitha, 30 miles south of Mosul, was part of "a cordon and search operation to capture an anti-Iraqi force cell leader," the military said in a statement.

The satellite-guided bomb struck a house that "was not the intended target. ... The intended target was another location nearby," it said.

The statement said that five people were killed and that the military "deeply regretted the loss of possibly innocent lives." However, the owner of the house, Ali Yousef, told news services that the bomb killed 14 people, including seven children, all members of the same family.

An Associated Press photographer said 14 people were killed and six others, including residents of nearby homes, were injured.

The conflicting death tolls could not be independently reconciled, and the military said an investigation was under way.

Yousef said American troops immediately surrounded the area, blocking access for four hours. The brick house was reduced to rubble, according to the AP photographer at the scene.

U.S. forces have been building up their operations and forces this week in and around Mosul, which has been particularly violent in recent weeks.

Mosul is in Nineveh, one of the four provinces that U.S. officials have said are still not secure enough for voting in the Jan. 30 national assembly election.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.