Over 15 dead after Baghdad explosions

BAGHDAD: At least 15 people died yesterday when an apparent US air raid devastated a busy residential and commercial street in Baghdad. Charred bodies and mangled cars littered the area, sparking fury among crowds of Iraqis, after what witnesses and local officials said was a double missile strike.

Reuters correspondents at the scene said they had counted at least 15 bodies. Some lay in the wreckage of burned out cars. Crowds of enraged Iraqis carried bodies away, chanting: "There is no god but Allah" and "We will sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Saddam!" Fire engines and ambulances raced to the area as fires blazed in shattered buildings. Flames spewed from an oil tanker. US military officials said they could not confirm the incident. "We're seeing those same reports. We're looking into it," said one US official at American military headquarters in Doha. The official, who asked not to be named, said the United States took extreme caution to avoid civilian casualties, but accidents sometimes happened. "In this case, we're not sure," the official said. One resident said the missiles hit the busy street, which is lined by ground-floor shops underneath residential apartment blocks, at around 11.30 am. He said he believed as many as 27 people had been killed in the attack.

Haneed Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi defence unit for the district, said: "There are at least 13 killed and some 30 injured. Two missiles hit the street." He said there were no military facilities in the area. The United States and Britain have pounded targets in and around Baghdad with repeated air raids since the war to oust President Saddam Hussein began last Thursday. They say they are using precision-guided bombs and missiles which can destroy military and government targets while keeping civilian casualties to a minimum. Iraqi and Arab television stations broadcast footage of the aftermath of the attack, showing bloodied corpses and angry crowds — images likely to stir outrage in the Arab world and among opponents of the war.