9 civilian deaths in village investigated

BAGHDAD — U.S.-led forces said Thursday that they were investigating the deaths of nine Iraqi civilians in the village of Babahani.

Iraqi police reported that the bodies of five women and four children were taken Wednesday to a hospital in nearby Musayyib, about 42 miles south of Baghdad, after U.S.-led forces conducted “ground and air” operations in the area, according to a military statement.

The statement said buildings in the area have previously been used as safe houses by the Sunni Arab militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Forces searching a nearby house found bomb-making material, including wire, batteries and timers, the military said.

The U.S. military announced late Thursday that an Apache attack helicopter was forced to land south of Baghdad after it was hit by weapons fire. It gave no further details.

The U.S. military also said it had arrested three officials at the Baghdad airport who were planning to kidnap Iraqi security officials and civilians. Some of the people detained had been involved in attacks on American and Iraqi forces with bombs and mortar fire, it said.

In politics, Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq Hashimi, made an unprecedented visit to senior Shiite Muslim religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Najaf. Hashimi, who regularly criticizes Shiite government officials, announced his own plan for national unity Wednesday and showed his National Iraqi Pact to Sistani in a bridge-building effort.