BAGHDAD, 4 May 2008 =97 A US rocket attack damaged a hospital in the
Iraqi capital=92s Sadr City district yesterday, wounding 28 people as
American forces claimed to have killed 14 insurgents in the district.
The US military said it used a rocket in an attack on insurgents in
Sadr City that witnesses earlier re****ted was an airstrike.
An international agency re****ter at the scene said the district=92s main
Al-Sadr Hospital was badly damaged and a fleet of ambulances was
destroyed.
Just outside the hospital, a shack, which appeared to have been the
target, was reduced to a pile of rubble.
The military said it destroyed a =93criminal element command and control
center=94 by munitions from a =93rocket system=94 at approximately 10 a.m.
=93Intelligence re****ts indicate the command and control center was used
by criminal elements to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi
security and coalition forces and innocent Iraqi citizens,=94 it said.
Hospital staff said at least 28 people wounded in the strike were
brought inside for treatment at the complex, which had its windows
shattered, and medical and electrical equipment damaged.
Medical staff and other hospital workers were livid. =93They (the
Americans) will say it was a weapons cache that was hit,=94 said the
head of the Baghdad health department, Dr. Ali Bistan, who arrived at
the scene to *****s the damage. =93But in fact they want to destroy the
infrastructure of the country.=94
He charged that the attack was aimed at preventing doctors and
medicines from reaching the hospital, which is in an area that has
seen increased clashes between American troops and fighters loyal to
Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr. Hospital corridors were littered with glass
shards, twisted metal and hanging electrical wiring. Partitions in
wards had collapsed.
Huge concrete blocks placed to form a blast wall against explosions
had toppled onto parked vehicles, including up to 17 ambulances,
disabling emergency response teams.
Nurse Zahra described her shock at the attack. =93I was very afraid. I
thought I would die. Everyone was scared. They ran in all directions,=94
she said. =93Now I=92m more sad than frightened because hospital
facilities have been destroyed.=94 Hospital guard Alaa Muhammad, 26, was
at a side entrance when the attack came. =93There were five missiles
that exploded outside the parking lot,=94 he said.
An AFP re****ter saw three huge craters, each about six meters across,
created by the impact of the rockets. Youths scrambled over the rubble
to search for anyone trapped underneath.
Residents said that the shack that appeared to have been the main
target of the strike was a transit point for Muslim pilgrims.
The AFP re****ter witnessed several US helicopters sweeping above Sadr
City amid a steady barrage of gunfire.
The strike came as the US military said it had killed at least 14 Sadr
followers since Friday in a series of clashes around Sadr City.
The firefights, which began at 7:20 a.m. on Friday and have continued
s****adically, saw US forces use air sup****t and tanks as they clashed
with insurgents in the impoverished district of some two million
people. US forces have been cla****ng with Sadr followers since March
25 in Sadr City.
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