Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that 12 children and six women were killed in a bomb attack at a football pitch near the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Tuesday, amid confusion over casualties.

"The terrorist gangs today committed a crime targetted at children and their innocent enjoyment, killing 12 children and six women and wounding about 30," Maliki said in a statement.

A tribal leader had said 18 children were killed in an insurgent truck bomb attack at a football field while the US military said it had no reports of deaths in the town.

Instead, a US spokesperson said 30 civilians were wounded when US soldiers in south-east Ramadi misjudged the size of a seized weapons dump they were destroying with explosives and triggered a powerful blast.
Continues Below ↓