The family was fleeing fighting between Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition in Nasiriyah, 350 kilometers (210 miles) south of Baghdad, when the US helicopter fired on the jeep in Haidariya at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT), he said.

Razek al-Kazem al-Khafaj showed an AFP photographer the coffins he said held the bodies of his wife, his six children, his father, mother and three brothers and their wives.

"Which one of them should I cry on?" Khafaj said, before throwing sand in his face "so I don't have to see" the remains of his 15 relatives before him.

A hospital director in Hilla, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, said 33 civilians, including children, were killed and 310 wounded in coalition bombing Tuesday morning of the Nader residential area on the southern outskirts of the farming town.

US marines, meanwhile, captured a key canal bridge near Hilla on Tuesday in their drive toward Baghdad, their officers said. An AFP correspondent traveling with the troops said they were backed by artillery and two B-52 heavy bombers.

SPACE.WIRE