"There were a number of women, a handful of women. I can't remember if it was four or six, that were actually caught up in the engagement. They may have died from some of the fire that came from the aircraft," military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.

But he insisted ground troops taking part in the operation did not "not shoot women and children."

The coalition said earlier that a helicopter fired on a house, sheltering foreign fighers, killing 41 people Wednesday.

Iraqis who said they lost friends and relatives have claimed the attack hit homes in a village just outside the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, after a wedding party.

Arab satellite news channel Al-Arabiya aired footage of bodies wrapped in blankets and loaded on trucks, and said the dead included women and children.

WAR.WIRE