The incident took place at 2 am (2300 GMT on Friday) when troops burst into the home of Hussein Ali al-Tikriti, who had been a general in Saddam Hussein's army, a police source told AFP.

They killed him and his wife, and wounded the child, according to a neighbour in Hawijah village, west of Kirkuk.

The neighbour added that Tikriti had been arrested twice before by American and Iraqi security forces, and that he had once been held in the US-controlled Camp Bucca in the south of the country.

A US army spokesman confirmed the casualties, saying the raid was a combined operation with Iraqi security forces against Al-Qaeda in Iraq networks.

"When coalition and Iraqi forces were clearing the building, they entered a room and saw the woman reaching under a mattress," he said.

"The force repeatedly gave instructions in Arabic for the woman to show her hand, but she failed to comply. Perceiving hostile intent, forces engaged and killed her," he said, adding that a pistol was later found under the mattress.

"A male in the room then physically attacked members of the ground force. Acting in self-defence, forces engaged and killed the man, who was later identified as the wanted terrorist.

"One child was also injured in the incident and treated by coalition forces," the spokesman said, without giving details of how she was wounded.

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