Baghdad  - US troops killed six suspected terrorists and two children near Bayji, 200 kilometres north of Baghdad, during a raid on al-Qaeda in Iraq forces, US military officials said early Thursday.

In an e-mailed statement, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq provided further details about an incident reported late Wednesday by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that identified the eight dead as civilians.

"Coalition forces regret the loss of innocent civilian lives," US Navy Captain Gordon Delcambre said. "Terrorists continue to show their disregard for human life by endangering children with their illegal and violent activities."

Captain Charles Calio, another spokesman, said in a telephone interview that an investigation had been opened into the shooting late Wednesday of the children.

US military officials said the raid was part of several operations Wednesday targeting members of an al-Qaeda in Iraq bombing network in the area between Bayji and Tikrit. Calio said the operations had lasted longer than 24 hours and were continuing so the number of dead and arrested could well go up.

Coalition forces arrested two people on a most-wanted list and another 28 who acted with "hostile intent" during the raid or had weapons caches, Calio said.

A source in the Iraqi police force in Salahaddin province told dpa late Wednesday that a US helicopter fired the lethal shots during a raid. The source said those killed were civilians trying to escape.

US military officials said coalition forces followed a vehicle that departed a building guarded by "terrorists with machine guns" and tried to stop the vehicle without using lethal force. They fired three warning shots, US military officials said.

The suspects made "threatening" movements from inside the vehicle and refused to stop, the US military said. US forces then fired on the vehicle, killing the six suspects and two children, the statement said.

Witnesses told dpa that the US troops stopped all white-coloured cars and checked the occupants' identification during the raid. They added that people stayed at home out of fear of being shot or arrested. (dpa)