National News

Cruise missiles hit residential area in Baghdad, killing 14, injuring 30

Two cruise missiles struck a residential area in Baghdad on March 26, killing 14 people, Iraqi defense officials said. It was the worst reported instance of civilian deaths since the U.S.-led bombing campaign began.

Thirty others were reported injured in the attack, which occurred at midday in a busy, working-class neighborhood of northern Baghdad.

The U.S. military acknowledged hitting a residential area but said itdid not specifically aim for the area.

In a statement, the U.S. Central Command said that coalition fire may have killed some civilians, but stopped short of confirming the deaths and blamed Baghdad for placing military hardware in civilian areas.

"While the coalition goes to great lengths to avoid injury to civilians and damage to civilian facilities, in some cases such damage is unavoidable when the regime places military weapons near civilian areas," it said.

Another Pentagon official did not rule out that an Iraqi rather than a U.S. missile hit the area. "We know for a fact something landed there, but we don't know for a fact whether it was U.S. or Iraqi," he said. "We do know that we did not target anything in the vicinity."

Russia, which has been an outspoken opponent of the war, called for an immediate end to the fighting after the attack.

The U.S. military's admission came as the death toll rose from the U.S.-led war aimed at ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, with U.S. troops saying they had killed 1,000 Iraqis near the city of Najaf.

As of March 27, at least 24 U.S. and 20 British soldiers have been killed since war erupted March 20, according to coalition sources.

The total number of Iraqi casualties remains unclear, although according to Iraqi figures, airstrikes in Baghdad have left 30 civilians dead and more than 400 wounded.

Shukan ST: April 4, 2003

(C) All rights reserved