BAGHDAD, Jan 24 (Reuters) - U.S. troops shot dead a couple and wounded their eight-year-old daughter during an early morning raid on their house in northern Iraq on Saturday, a senior Iraqi police officer said.

Major-General Turhan Abdul Rahman, deputy chief commander of police in Kirkuk province, said U.S. forces stormed the house of Dhiya Hussein, a former officer in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, in Hawija, 210 km (130 km) north of Baghdad.

A U.S. military spokesman confirmed that a man and a woman had been killed and a child wounded in the raid, but gave no further details.

The spokesman said the incident took place during a joint operation with Iraqi forces. The Iraqi police general said no Iraqi troops were present at the raid.

Kirkuk is one of the northern provinces where unrest persists despite a reduction in violence in the country. U.S. forces there have yet to hand over responsibility for security to Iraqi troops as they have done in most of Iraq. (Reporting by Tim Cocks and Khalid al Ansary; Writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

AlertNet news is provided by