(Recasts with air strike, Internet cafe attack)

By David Clarke

BAGHDAD, Oct 11 (Reuters) - U.S. forces killed 19 insurgents and 15 women and children in air strikes north of Iraq's capital targeting suspected leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

The attack came the same day the United Nations, in its latest human rights report on Iraq, called on U.S. forces to investigate the killing of civilians in air strikes and raids by ground forces and make the findings public.

The U.N. also called for probes to determine whether private security contractors in Iraq have committed war crimes by killing civilians and for governments to ensure that rule of law is applied, U.N. officials said.

The killing of 17 Iraqis in a shooting involving U.S. security firm Blackwater last month has created tensions between Baghdad and Washington and sparked calls for tighter controls on private contractors, who are immune from prosecution in Iraq.

Ivana Vuco, the U.N.'s senior human rights officer in Iraq, told a news conference that private security contractors were still subject to international humanitarian law.

"Investigations as to whether or not crimes against humanity, war crimes, are being committed and obviously the consequences of that is something that we will be paying attention to and advocating for," she told a news conference.

A wounded survivor and relatives of three Iraqis killed in the Blackwater incident sued the firm in U.S. court on Thursday.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group, said it filed the suit charging that Blackwater and its affiliates violated U.S. law in committing "extrajudicial killings and war crimes".

The suit seeks unspecified compensatory damages for death, physical, mental and economic injuries, and punitive damages. A government source has said Baghdad wants Blackwater to pay $8 million in compensation to each victim's family.

AIR STRIKES

Iraqi civilians have by far borne the brunt of violence since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. According to Iraq Body Count, a Web site run by academics and peace activists, at least 74,930 civilians have died in that period.

"We regret that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism," said Maj. Brad Leighton, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, in reference to the deadly air strike on Thursday.

"These terrorists chose to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence."

The U.N. mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said in its report covering April through June that 88 civilians had been killed by U.S. air strikes.

"UNAMI urges that all credible allegations of unlawful killings by multi-national forces be thoroughly, promptly and impartially investigated, and appropriate action taken against military personnel found to have used excessive or indiscriminate force," the report said.

In one of the biggest insurgent attacks on Thursday, a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk wounded the traffic police chief, killed at least seven people and wounded 50 others, police said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has vowed to attack Iraqi police and Sunni Arab tribal leaders working with U.S. forces. There has been a spate of attacks on law enforcement officers and tribal leaders in northern Iraq this week.

A suicide car bomber killed eight people and wounded 25 in an attack on an Internet cafe in the capital. (Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Ross Colvin and Paul Tait)

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