‘40 killed as US chopper fires on wedding party’

Dr Salah Al-Ani put the death toll at 45. Associated Press TV news obtained a videotape showing a truck containing bodies of people who were allegedly killed in the incident. Most of the bodies were wrapped in blankets, but the footage showed at least eight uncovered, bloody bodies, several of them children — one of them headless.

‘‘I cannot comment on this as we have not received any reports that this has happened nor that any were involved in such a tragedy,’’ Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a US military spokesman, said. APTN footage showed the truck of bodies and mourners with shovels digging graves over a wide, dusty area in Ramadi. A group of men crouched and wept around one coffin.

Al-Ani said people at the wedding were firing weapons in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and then left. However, he said, helicopters attacked the area at about 3 am. Two houses were destroyed in the attack. — PTI