DUBAI, May 19: At least 41 civilians were killed on Wednesday in a US air raid on an Iraqi village celebrating a wedding. The Dubai-based Al Arabiya television network, quoting eyewitnesses in the town of Al Qaim, on the Syrian border , said the frontier village of Makr al Deeb was attacked before dawn.

In Baghdad, a US military spokesman said reports about the attack were being investigated. Al Arabiya said the victims included women and children and showed pictures of several shrouded bodies lined up on a dirt road. Men were shown digging graves and lowering bodies, one of a child, into the pits while relatives wept.

"The US planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us," an unidentified man who said he was from the village said on Al Arabiya. "They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they levelled the whole village. No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening," he added.

The United States alleges foreign fighters are entering Iraq from Syria. In July 2002, a US air strike on an Afghan wedding party killed 48 civilians. A report released by the Central Command said the strike was justified because American planes had come under fire. -Reuters