Baghdad - US forces killed a family of nine, including two children, in a helicopter bombing on their house in the northern Salahaddin province on Friday, witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Two children and three women were among the victims when the Ali Taema household in the al-Dor district, 170 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad was hit.

In a separate incident, unknown gunmen shot dead a man and his wife and injured another four members of the same family including a child in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

The gunmen stormed the family's house in the al-Yabesat district, 405 north of Baghdad, late on Thursday. The reason of the attack was unknown, a police source said.

In Baghdad's southern suburb Safraniyah, unknown perpetrators detonated an explosive in front of the building of the Shiite organization Shahid al-Mihrab which is part of the governing Supreme Islamic Counsel in Iraq. (dpa)