-Caveat Lector- 4.30am update http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,924907,00.html
Baghdad strike kills at least 50 · Missile fired on Kuwait City · British soldier killed by US jet · Syria denies 'trafficking' Iraqi arms George Wright, Sarah Left and agencies Saturday March 29, 2003 The Guardian An explosion in a busy Baghdad marketplace has killed at least 50 people and left scores more wounded. Iraqi officials claimed the carnage was caused by a stray coalition cruise missile, but there was no immediate comment at US Central Command in Qatar. Late last night doctors at Baghdad's al-Noor Hospital said they had seen 52 corpses and they expected the toll to rise. Arabic language television station al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya also reported on the bombing, in the Shula neighbourhood of the capital. Al-Jazeera television put the death toll at 55, and showed the injured, many of them children, lying in hospital beds with bandages on their heads and faces. One boy had a blood-soaked bandage on his nose and cried softly as a man and woman sobbed. "An Iraqi official told us that the search is still going on for those trapped under the rubble," said the correspondent for al-Jazeera. If the number of casualties is confirmed, it will be the largest number of civilians killed in one incident so far in the conflict. Earlier, Reuters reported that an air strike on a Baghdad neighbourhood office of the ruling Ba'ath party had killed eight people, including several civilians. Residents of the capital's Mansour district told Reuters that the strike took place at around noon local time, destroying several houses as well as the party offices. Witnesses said that the bodies of several civilians, along with those of Ba'ath party militia members, were pulled from the rubble. Last night's bombardment was one of the heaviest since the start of "shock and awe" campaign. In one raid, a US stealth bomber dropped two huge "bunker-busting" bombs on a communications tower in the capital. The US military said that Iraqi command centres were also targeted. Missile fired on Kuwait City An Iraqi missile exploded in the sea close to Kuwait City today, rocking a shopping centre and sending plumes of smoke above the city. The missile - the 13th to be launched by Saddam Hussein against Kuwait since the war started - came down at about 2am local time (11pm GMT) by the seafront in the Souq Sharq area of the city. It was the closest that a missile has come to Kuwait City since the war began and landed around three miles from the Dasman palace, home to the emir of Kuwait, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah. The explosion smashed windows outside the shopping mall. Two people were injured, according to Reuters. British soldier killed in 'friendly fire' attack A British soldier was killed and two others badly injured in a suspected "friendly fire" incident near Basra, according to defence sources. The British soldiers were thought to have been hit when an American A-10 'tankbuster' aircraft fired depleted uranium shells on two armoured vehicles yesterday afternoon. Three other soldiers were described as "walking wounded". Twenty-three British soldiers have now died in the war on Iraq. The soldier who died would be the fifth Briton to die in a "blue on blue" incident. Only four have been killed by the enemy. A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "We can confirm we are investigating an incident involving possible friendly fire as a matter of urgency." The unit involved cannot be named until military authorities contact the men's next of kin. US jets destroy 'regime' building in Basra American jets destroyed a two-story building in Basra where some 200 Iraqi regime paramilitary members were believed to be meeting last night, according to US Central Command. The F-15E Strike Eagles used laser-guided missiles to destroy the building, while leaving undamaged the Basra Christian Church 300 meters (yards) away, officials said. Earlier, British military leaders reported that a group of around 2,000 Iraqi civilians trying to flee the southern city of Basra were fired upon by Iraqi mortars. Iraq said yesterday that 116 people had died and 695 had been injured in Basra since the war began. Fleeing civilians 'injured in Iraqi attack' Syria dismisses US accusations on Iraq supplies Syria has angrily dismissed US accusations that it has been shipping military supplies to Iraq, saying Washington was trying to divert attention from "war crimes" committed against Iraqi civilians. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that shipments of equipment, such as night-vision goggles, had been crossing into Iraq from Syria and that Damascus would be held accountable for such "hostile acts". But a statement from the Syrian Foreign Ministry said: "What Donald Rumsfeld said about the transportation of equipment from Syria to Iraq is an attempt to cover up what his forces have been committing against civilians in Iraq." The statement said US-led forces were "committing ugly war crimes against unarmed civilians in Iraq, where hundreds of children and women were being killed and houses were being demolished". It added: "After the failed expectations of a swift and clean victory, Rumsfeld was attempting to justify the failure of his forces... by accusing others of smuggling equipment to Iraq". Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf denied in an interview with the Lebanese LBC television channel that Iraq was receiving any military equipment from Syria. US reducing staff in Yemen The United States offered free flights home for some staff at its embassy in Yemen because of what it called credible reports of planned attacks on US interests there. 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