A woman during a protest march in Baghdad against a new family law approved by the governing council. (AFP)

Baghdad, Jan. 13 (Agencies): US soldiers opened fire at a car in the Iraqi capital, killing the driver and a 10-year-old boy, moments after an army vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, relatives said today.

One soldier was killed in the bombing yesterday, the US military said. Brigadier General Mark Hertling, a deputy commander of the division responsible for security in Baghdad, said the shooting “has not been confirmed” and the army is investigating.

In Falluja, US soldiers killed at least four Iraqi civilians when they opened fire after coming under rocket attack, witnesses said. They said the troops were patrolling the town west of Baghdad after a noisy anti-US protest when two rockets were fired at them. An elderly woman in a nearby house and three men in a car were killed when the soldiers returned fire, the witnesses said.

“Two rockets were fired at them,” said Khalas Ahmed, a 15-year-old boy selling cigarettes from a nearby kiosk. “The Americans started firing back. The bullets hit my kiosk and I dived to the ground.” The woman who was killed was on a balcony of a nearby house while a car which was passing was caught in a hail of bullets, other witnesses said. All three men inside were killed.

A US military spokeswoman in Baghdad said she had no immediate information on the incident.

Hundreds of people participated in the protest against the arrest of a young woman by troops in the town yesterday.

Speakers said the woman was alone at home at the time and that her arrest was an insult.