30 Iraqi children, 215 wounded in Red Crescent hospital bombing; contradictory news
Iraq-USA, Military, 4/3/2003

Baghdad, once again yesterday was exposed to brutal bombardment that even struck hospitals. Bombs were dropped on various areas of the capital and bombardment also targeted a telecommunication establishment and a presidential complex near the Tigris river and a bridge at the southern suburb of Baghdad.

News reports said that the American jets bombarded a gynecology hospital that belongs to the Iraqi Red Crescent and this resulted in the killing of more than 30 Iraqi children and wounding other 215, including one doctor at the hospital whose leg was chopped.

News correspondents said that the American forces attacks killed Iraqi civilians in Barkala area to the east of al-Mousel claiming the lives of 21 Iraqis and wounding of 75. The correspondents broadcasted a live images for scenes of the devastation and the buildings destroyed by the bombardment.

The news also said that US B 52 jets bombed for several times areas between al-Mousel and Dhouk in northern Iraq.

The city of al-Mousel itself was exposed to air bombardment amid intensive flying for the American- British planes and that the Iraqi anti aircraft missiles retaliated intensively.

The correspondent of al-Jazira TV station said that the bombardment targeted the inside of al-Mousel city after the raiding planes just quarter of an hour earlier targeted the surrounding of the city by intensive bombing on the western front.

One report by a correspondent accompanying the American Naval troops, 25 Km from al-Kout said that two strong bombs were blown up near the city and that smoke was seen intensively coming from the two sites.

The International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC said yesterday that its employees found bodies of scores of Iraqis as a result of the bombardment at Halala city in the south of Iraq. The spokesman for the ICRC which takes Geneva as a headquarters said that the ICRC employee saw scores of the Iraqi bodies including women and children exposed to the American bombardment by Apache planes against one of the populated areas in Halala city in southern Iraq.

The ICRC spokesman explained that at the meantime some 280 wounded Iraqis are being treated at Halala surgery hospital.

Meantime, an Iraqi military spokesman denied the allegations of the American central leadership in Qatar on the destruction of an Iraqi contingent in Baghdad, stressing that these allegations are void and baseless. The Iraqi spokesman said that these allegations are part of a hostile campaign, noting that the Iraqi forces are solid.

However, Gen. Brox, in charge of the American central leadership in Qatar said yesterday that the American units destroyed one Iraqi contingent stationed in al-Kout area, 150 Km, south - west of Baghdad.

The Iraqi information minister Muhammad Saed al-Sahaf said that 10 Iraqis were killed and 90 wounded in the Anglo- American bombardment of Baghdad.

In a press conference yesterday al-Sahaf said that the American and British forces deliberately targeted civilians and dropped booby trapped pencils at Iraqi villages, noting that citizens were asked not to approach these pencils which were confiscated.

Al-Sahaf denied news that the American forces crossed the Tigris river, stressing that the Iraqi force deterred an American attack against al-Najaf and that the invading forces are bombarding mosques there. He said that several Americans were captured in a fighting near al-Nasereyah.

The Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has called on the Iraqis to resist and defend their cities against the British- American invasion of their country.

In a statement read by a military spokesman and broadcast by the Iraqi Satellite station yesterday, the Iraqi president said " so far Iraq has only used one third of its army or less, while the American and British invaders had put all their capabilities." Saddam indicated that contingent number 11 of the Iraqi army and the Iraqi resistance were able to deter the occupation forces in al-Nasereyah and other towns in southern Iraq.

On the other side, a spokesman for the US defense department said that 46 American troops were so far killed since the beginning of the British- American invasion of Iraq.

The spokesman said that among the killed were 8 military men killed in accidents, and two were killed in a mortars attack by one of the Marine soldiers at a camp for the American forces in Kuwait.

An American military official said the American forces are launching important battle with the Iraqi forces near Kerbala. He added this is the first time in which the American land forces are launching a comprehensive fighting with the Iraqi forces.

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  Scores of Iraqi civillians killed in new attack on Baghdad; Washington warns Syria and Iran   (3/29/2003)

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