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With
rising civilian death toll, Iraqi hospitals are crammed
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BAGHDAD,
April 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The U.S. warplanes
launched a new missile attack on a number of civilian buildings in the
Iraqi capital Baghdad, including a Red Crescent maternity hospital, on
Wednesday, April 2.
The
raid on the hospital was the heaviest, with several people reported dead
and at least 24 others injured, according to hospital sources and
witnesses.
A
foreign correspondent said five burned-out and twisted cars halted in
the middle of road with drivers burned to death inside.
The
warplanes also struck a trade centre complex and buildings housing
Pharmacist and Teachers' Unions, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"There
were air raids. Some 25 people who work and live in the area were
wounded. Three of our Red Crescent staff were also wounded.
"We
brought all the wounded in our ambulances to two hospitals," Red
Crescent official Abdel-Hameed Salim told reporters at Baghdad's
al-Iskan hospital.
Among
the Red Crescent casualties was doctor Mohammad Fadel, who was getting
ready for a normally hectic day in war times, he added.
Also
injured was a patient who had come to see a doctor. He was hit,
requiring his leg to be amputated.
"We
had a lot of medical supplies for rescue operations and we don't know if
they were destroyed or not," Salim complained.
Al-Jazeera
satellite channel quoted another official of the hospital as saying all
of the fatalities and injured during the attack are civilians, including
doctors and nurses.
"Allegations"
In
a statement, U.S. Central Command said is looking into "an
allegation that coalition aircraft bombed a Red Crescent maternity
hospital in Baghdad, Iraq."
"Coalition
forces target only legitimate military targets and go to great lengths
to minimize civilian casualties and damage to civilian facilities,"
it claimed.
U.S.
military spokesman Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters in
Qatar "I am not aware of the Red Crescent report, so I cannot
address it."
The
attack on the hospital came just one day after General Richard Myers,
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized for the killings
of seven women and children
at a U.S. checkpoint in An-Najaf, in central Iraq.
Also,
at least 33 civilians
are reported to have died when U.S. helicopter gunships strafed a
residential neighborhood in the city of Hilla, 100 kilometers south of
Baghdad, on Tuesday, April 1.
Aid
agencies say they are increasingly worried about the mounting number of
civilian victims of the war.
A
spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad
described the U.S.-led bombardment of the town as a "horror"
that had left dozens of "smashed corpses".
Iraqi
authorities said on Wednesday that at least 55 civilians had been killed
by U.S.-led forces in attacks on Baghdad and other cities in the past 24
hours.
Hospitals
Crammed
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An
Iraqi woman cares for an injured Iraqi in Saddam Hospital
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With
rising numbers of casualties, doctors at a hospital in central Iraq have
told the BBC they have dealt with more than 250 fatalities since the
start of the war.
Officials
at the Saddam Hussein Hospital in Nasariya said all of the mostly
civilian deaths were the result of American bombing.
They
added many homes and schools had been hit by the U.S.-led forces, and
that more than 1000 injuries had been treated.
On
Tuesday, officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) - accompanied by Iraqi colleagues - visited a hospital in Hilla,
about 100 kilometers (70 miles) south of Baghdad.
ICRC
spokeswoman Nada Doumani was quoted by the BBC as saying the team
"witnessed a vehicle transporting bodies of men, women and children
to the hospital and in the hospital they saw also some 300 injured
people and it was very clear that this was the result of heavy fighting
and bombings".
The
Red Cross said the hospital was completely unable to cope.
