U.S. investigates report of Iraqi civilians killed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday it was investigating whether civilians, including two children, were killed during a fierce gunbattle in Ramadi on Wednesday that ended with U.S. air strikes destroying several buildings.

U.S. Marine spokesman Lieutenant Shawn Mercer had said on Thursday there were no reports of civilian casualties but that U.S. forces had killed 12 insurgents in the six-hour battle in the volatile western city.

Iraqi officials in Ramadi said 26 people were killed, including some women and children, and a Reuters photographer saw the bodies of an infant and a young boy who had been pulled from the rubble of one of the demolished buildings.

"There was a claim we're looking into right now as to a number of civilian casualties," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver told reporters in Baghdad.

"The Marines did not at first think there were civilian casualties."

Garver said insurgents were "firmly entrenched" in several buildings and there was a long exchange of fire with U.S. forces who used heavy weapons and then called in air strikes to destroy the buildings where the insurgents were based.