The attack occurred Thursday night in Arab Jabour, a mostly Sunni Muslim suburb south of Baghdad.

American troops came under "heavy enemy fire during a raid targeting al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists and foreign fighter facilitators," the U.S. military said in a statement.

Coalition aircraft swooped in, dropping precision bombs on a building where eight suspects had barricaded themselves, the statement said.

All eight were killed. No U.S. forces or Iraqi civilians were injured in the attack, the military said.

An Iraqi army officer, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media, confirmed the raid and number of people killed. He added that Iraqi soldiers did not take part in the clashes.

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