An airstrike destroyed a house in the southern city of Basra, killing a militant, the U.S. military said Thursday. Iraqi police said six civilians were among the dead. The attack comes as the Iraqi government apparently shifts gears in its offensive against Shiite militias, staging more targeted raids instead of attacking the gunmen head-on after a week of fierce clashes that spread to Baghdad and other southern cities. The U.S.-led coalition directed "aerial fires" against enemy forces fighting Iraqi troops Wednesday near the militia stronghold of Qibla in Basra, said Lt. David Russell, a military spokesman. That district that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the offensive that began March 25.

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