US-British bombing kills 33 civilians south of Baghdad: hospital

HILLA, Iraq (AFP) Apr 01, 2003
Thirty-three civilians, including children, were killed and 310 wounded in a US-British coalition bombing on the southern province of Babylon on Tuesday morning, a hospital director said.

Murtada Abbas said the bombing targeted the Nader residential area at the southern outskirts of the farming town of Hilla, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad.

He was speaking at the Hilla hospital where a large number of children lay wounded under blankets on the floor due to a shortage of beds.

At the scene of the bombing, dozens of what seemed to be parts of cluster bombs equipped with small parachutes were peppered over a large area, an AFP correspondent at the site said.

Iraqi army soldiers were seen collecting the bomb pieces, which witnesses said coalition warplanes had dropped over the neighborhood. The soldiers poured fuel on the bombs before setting them on fire to explode the ordnance.

Dozens of homes were destroyed in the bombing that also killed donkeys and chickens, the correspondent said.

SPACE.WIRE