Iraqis dance on a burning US Bradley Fighting Vehicle at Haifa Street

BAGHDAD, September 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 12 people  were killed, including two children, and 41 wounded when US helicopter gunships fired at central Baghdad early Sunday, September 12, as the residents of the northern town of Tal Afar appealed to the world to stop what they termed  “systematic US massacre” that claimed the lives of 100 people.

US helicopters fired missiles targeting a crowd of Iraqis dancing on a burning US tank after the sound of heavy machine-gun and Kalashnikov fire reverberated for hours in the Haifa street, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter.

Medics at the Al-Karkh and Karamah hospitals said two children were among the 12 victims.

The dead also included a Palestinian television journalist while two photographers were wounded.

Mazen Al-Tomaisi, 28, who worked for Saudi television Akhbariya and as a fixer for the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, was killed covering the fighting in Haifa Street which erupted after a US helicopter air strike.

A wounded Iraqi carried to Karamah hospital following the US raid

An Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters and an Iraqi photographer working for Getty Images were also wounded slightly by flying shrapnel.

Another 39 people were brought in with injuries, including three women and six children, the medics added.

Earlier, the health ministry said at least five people killed and 45 wounded in three hours of intense fighting between US occupation forces and Iraqi resistance fighters.

On Tuesday, September 7, US forces killed up to 40 Iraqis and injured 200 others in Baghdad neighborhood Sadr City.

‘Systematic Massacre’

Meanwhile, the people of the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar sent Sunday, September 12, an SOS call to stop a “systematic US massacre” that killed overnight 100 people.

“I appeal to the world and Muslims worldwide to save 250,000 people from a systematic US massacre in Tal Afar (30 miles west of Mosul),” Nabil Harbu, an official with the Turkmen Front, told Al-Jazeera satellite channel.

Harbu said US warplanes launched Saturday night deadly air strikes on what they called resistance strongholds.

One of the victims of US raids on Tall Afar (AFP)

“There are no resistance bases in Tal Afar. Resistance fighters only carry out hit-and-run operations,” Harbu stressed.

“People are digging up mass graves here to cope with the large number of the victims. The situation here is horrible in the broad sense of the word."

The Turkish Turkmen minority make up more than half of the town's residents.

The US military says the town is a suspected haven for “terrorists” crossing into Iraq from Syria .

Green Zone Attacked

Also Sunday, the militant group of alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi claimed in an internet statement that it launched missiles into Baghdad 's Green Zone and attacked Abu Ghraib prison guards.

“Dozens of mujahedeen missiles were launched against scattered targets, particularly in Baghdad and other Sunni provinces,” said the statement signed by the military branch of the Tawhid wal Jihad group.

“They targeted the American headquarters and the traitor Iraqi government and some embassies of allied countries,” said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.

“The lions of Tawhid wa Al-Jihad have also bombarded the guards of Abu Ghraib prison.”

A US military source in Baghdad confirmed that “insurgents” fired mortar shells early Sunday into the heavily fortified Green Zone, the compound which houses the US and Iraqi government headquarters in Baghdad .

There was no word on casualties.

Also Sunday, a man tried to drive a car rigged with explosives into the compound of Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, a US military spokesman said.