BAGHDAD (AFP) - At least 17 Iraqis including women and children were killed in a U.S. air raid near the city of Baquba on Friday, Iraqi officials and witnesses said.

""Seventeen people were killed, 27 were wounded and eight are missing including women and children,"" a defense ministry official told AFP.
U.S. helicopters attacked the village of Al-Jaysani, near the mainly Shiite town of Al-Khalis, around 2 am (2300 GMT), destroying at least four houses and killing up to 25 people, witnesses said.
Ahmed Mohammed, 31, said he had traveled with 15 wounded from the area to the City Medical Hospital in Baghdad.
""There are 24 bodies on the ground in the village and 25 others wounded in Al-Khalis hospital,"" he told AFP.