Up to 14 killed as missiles strike residential area

Up to 14 killed as missiles strike residential area

At least 14 Iraqi civilians were reportedly killed when missiles hit the Mansour residential neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital on Monday.

"Many civilians have been killed and homes destroyed - there is a lot of destruction in this area," Al Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, Tayseer Alouneh reported.

"Rescue teams are using bulldozers to try to find survivors under all this rubble but it does not look like there will be any."

Eyewitnesses said nine members of a family, including two children and five other people were found dead after a bomb destroyed four houses off Ramadan 14, a main commercial area in the Mansour district.

The missiles hit around 1100 GMT.

"There was a plane... flying at low altitude... then it released a missile... I saw dead people," a Baghdad resident told Al Jazeera at the scene of the bombing.

The US military said it was investigating those reports.

"US Central Command is investigating allegations that missiles hit the al-Mansour area in Baghdad," it said in a statement, adding that no further information was available.--- Al Jazeera with agency inputs