Two cruise missiles struck a residential area in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 14 people, Iraqi defense officials said
Thirty others were reported injured in the attack, which occurred around midday in the heavily populated northern Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Shaab. The area consists of homes and some 30 shops, mostly cheap restaurant and auto repair shops.
Lt. Col. Hamad Abdullah, head of civil defense in the area, said 14 people were killed and 30 injured. Seventeen cars were destroyed, he added. Earlier, witnesses said they saw at least 15 burnt corpses lying in a street, close to three badly damaged apartment buildings.
The streets were flooded after water pipes were ruptured by the air strike. Street lights fell down, trees were uprooted and some cars were overturned by the blast.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said more than 500 people were wounded and some 200 houses destroyed as U.S. troops stormed through the southern city of Nassiriya.
"They have destroyed 200 houses, maybe more maybe less. The Iraqi wounded in Nassiriya is more than 500 civilians," Sahaf told a news conference in Baghdad. (Albawaba.com)
