- KUWAIT (Reuters) - Al-Jazeera
television, quoting Iraqi medics, say that 50 people have been killed in
U.S. bombing around the
- southern Iraqi city of Basra and it has aired grisly
footage of dead and wounded civilians.
-
- Among the scenes, beamed across the Arab the world by
the Qatar-based satellite channel, were a child with the back of its
- head blown off -- it was unclear if it was a boy or a
girl -- and bloodied people being treated on the floor of a hospital.
-
- "It's a huge mass of civilians," one angry
woman told al-Jazeera, standing among the wounded. "It was a massacre."
-
- The report could not be independently confirmed. U.S.
and British forces have been in action around Basra. U.S. Marines
- defeated Iraqi forces in a battle on the outskirts of
the city on Saturday, and took many prisoners, a U.S. officer said.
-
- It was not immediately clear who controlled Basra and
there was no other immediate confirmation of the bombings.
-
- Asked about whether U.S.-led forces had bombed Basra,
a military spokesman in Qatar declined comment, saying: "That is
- considered an ongoing operation and until it is over
we're not going to go out there one way or another on that."
-
- U.S. and British forces say they are intent on keeping
civilian casualties to a minimum in their war to overthrow Iraqi President
- Saddam Hussein.
-
- Jazeera quoted hospital sources as saying a total of
50 people were killed -- including one entire family and a Russian citizen
-- when U.S. F-16 warplanes planes bombed the city.
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