Ten suspected insurgents were killed in a U.S. airstrike on a village in northern Iraq on Tuesday, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

Pilots saw three men digging holes near a main road in an attempt to plant bombs, according to a U.S. military statement.

Hearing the U.S. fighter jets overhead, the suspected men fled the scene in a car and were soon joined by a second vehicle, heading toward a small village near the Hawija town, southwest of the northern city Kirkuk, the statement said.

U.S. fighter jets then dropped two 500-pound (225-kg) bombs, targeting the two cars hiding "by parking between two buildings" in the village, it added.

U.S. forces then destroyed the roadside bomb the suspected insurgents had planted and searched the village, seizing assault rifles, a machine gun and bomb-making equipment.

Source: Xinhua