US aircraft hit a Red Crescent maternity hospital in Baghdad, the city’s trade fair, and other civilian buildings today, killing several people and wounding at least 25, hospital sources and a Reuters witness said.
The attacks occurred at 9.30am (0630 BST) and caught motorists by surprise as they ventured out during a lull in the bombing. At least five cars were crushed with drivers burned to death inside, Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul said; patients and at least three doctors and nurses working at the hospital were among those wounded.
The missiles obliterated wings of Baghdad’s trade fair building, which lies next to a government security office that was apparently missed in the bombings.
Iraq’s information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, told a news conference today that overnight bombings by US-led forces killed 24 civilians and injured 186 across the country. In Baghdad, he said, 10 civilians had been killed and 90 wounded.
”No matter how many Iraqi civilians they kill, this will make us even stronger and even more determined to repel the invasion and to defeat them,” Sahaf said.
Kerbala secured
Earlier US forces today secured the central Iraqi city of Kerbala and a strategically important Tigris river crossing in their push to Baghdad.
Commanders of the US 3rd Infantry Division had expected a day-long battle to seize the perimeter of the city, which is 70 miles south of Baghdad, but the operation lasted three hours.
Rather than tackling Iraqi soldiers inside, the US soldiers secured all major exit routes and continued the drive north.
”We’ve secured the positions we wanted to around Kerbala,” said Colonel John Peabody, commander of an engineer brigade.
Up to 15,000 US troops have massed around Kerbala waiting to pour across the Euphrates – the last major natural obstacle standing between them and Baghdad on the south-western approach to the capital.
US marines later took control of the main Highway 6 from Kut to Baghdad- the eastern flank of the advance – and seized a Tigris river crossing described by one senior officer as the ”last big bridge” needed for an advance on the Iraqi capital.
He said the Baghdad Division of Iraq’s Republican Guard, based at Kut, was now ”irrelevant”.
Pentagon officials have said the Republican Guard must be eliminated before ground troops move on to Baghdad.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the Medina and Baghdad units had been heavily worn down. Elements of two of Iraq’s northernmost Republican Guard divisions – the Adnan and Nebuchadnezzar – were moving south towards Baghdad, apparently to reinforce units under attack.
Saddam statement
A new statement from Saddam Hussein broadcast today by Iraqi satellite television said the Iraqi armed forces had not used their full capabilities in the war.
”Fight them. Victory is at hand, God willing, although we have only utilised a third or less of our army while the criminals have used everything they brought in.”
Iraq’s defence minister, Sultan Hashem Ahmed, claimed aerial bombardment of Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad had caused minimal damage, because of ”good fortifications”.
Full story: Saddam urges Iraqis to fight
Blair: Iraq should be run by Iraqis
Iraq should be run by the Iraqi people as soon as possible after the war ends, the prime minister, Tony Blair, insisted today.
Blair told MPs he favoured a ”broadly representative” Iraqi government that protected human rights – rather than the country being run by the UN or the coalition.
The prime minister also claimed that it was ”increasingly probable” that a bomb which killed about 14 civilians in a Baghdad market last week was not a coalition weapon.
Protection for historic sites
Blair also told the Commons that President Saddam might damage holy sites in Iraq in order to blame the allies, but pledged that Britain would do everything it could to protect the shrines.
In pictures: Iraq’s cultural heritage
Straw: we will not attack Iran or Syria
Britain would have ”nothing whatever” to do with military action against Syria or Iran, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, signalled today.
Straw’s comments will be seen as an attempt to ensure that speculation about an Anglo-American attack on the two countries is quashed ahead of his meeting with EU foreign ministers tomorrow.
The US president, George Bush, has previously identified Iran as part of the so-called ”axis of evil”, while America’s defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, this week accused Syria of supplying military equipment to Iraq and threatened to hold it to account for its actions.
Straw told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ”Iran is an emerging democracy and there would be no case whatsoever for taking any kind of action.”
Regarding Syria, Straw said ”we have worked hard to try to improve relations”. – – Guardian Unlimited Â