Gość: VIETNAM SIE ZACZYN
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26.04.03, 16:41
NOWY VIETNAM SIE ZACZYNA
ZAAFARANIYA, Iraq, April 26 — A series of huge blasts at an arms dump on the
outskirts of Baghdad Saturday killed and wounded an unknown number of people.
U.S. Central Command said unidentified attackers fired a device into the
munitions store causing the chain of explosions. Soon afterward, dozens of
Iraqis angered by the explosions held a large anti-American demonstration
near a city center hotel.
U.S. FORCES SAID troops guarding the arms dump came under attack Saturday
morning and that a device the attackers fired caused the initial explosion,
which in turn caused several subsequent blasts. At least six civilians were
killed, U.S. Central Command said.
“Ten civilian casualties from this incident have been found. Six of them are
dead, while four are wounded,” the statement said.
But Iraqi witnesses said they believed many more had been killed and one
Iraqi medic said as many as 40 had died.
U.S. officers at the scene rejected allegations from local residents that
U.S. forces had brought more munitions to the site from elsewhere in Iraq and
also denied that they had been destroying ammunition at the site in
controlled detonations.
DEVASTATION BLAMED ON THE AMERICANS
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Local people blamed the devastation on the Americans, shooting at soldiers
trying to treat the injured and recover bodies from the rubble, driving
American forces from the area.
Scores of Iraqis angered by the explosions held an anti-American
demonstration near the Palestine hotel, which is the base for much of the
international media.
“No to America, No to Saddam;
Yes, Yes for an Islamic state,” they chanted, led by a Muslim cleric with a
megaphone.
“We die and Islam lives,” ran another chant.
Earlier, hundreds of men from the Zaafaraniya suburb drove out in trucks and
buses chanting anti-U.S. slogans and bearing six coffins, apparently
containing the bodies of some of the dead from the explosions, which wrecked
homes in the district.
Among banners in the crowd one, in English, read: “No Bombs Between Houses.”
In Arabic beneath was written: “Yes, Yes to Freedom.”
Another banner, in Islamic green, read in Arabic: “U.S. forces kill
innocents with Saddam’s weapons.”
Many Iraqis have welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by the U.S.-led
invasion but, two weeks after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces, many are voicing
their impatience with the U.S. presence and say they want to run their own
country.
ROCKETS RAINED DOWN ON HOMES
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