BAGHDAD, March 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Eight Iraqi civilians were killed and 44 wounded in the latest Anglo-American bombardment of a residential block south of Baghdad, the director general of Iraqi civil defense said Thursday, March 27.

The raids targeted a quarter housing employees of the roads and bridges department at Yussufiyah, some 30 kilometers south of Baghdad, General Hatem Ali al-Khalaf told reporters taken to the site, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The victims were mostly women and children," he said.

It was unclear whether the deaths in Yussufiyah were part of a toll given earlier Thursday by Health Minister Umid Medhat Mubarak, who said 36 Baghdad residents were killed in U.S. and British air strikes.

Mubarak said Thursday that more than 350 people had been killed and about 3,600 injured since the unleashing of the U.S.-led military strikes on March 20.

Pentagon officials said an errant missile may have been responsible for the explosions that also left 30 people injured after the missiles ripped into the apartment buildings, which had mechanics' garages and shops on the ground level, according to the director of civil defense in the district.

Debris from missiles filled two craters in the sidewalk after the attack, and pools of blood stained the main street.

A tally Wednesday around Baghdad's hospitals found that close to 1,000 people had received medical care for injuries sustained in the bombardment, although it was difficult to ascertain the number of dead.

The Pentagon said Wednesday, March 26, that U.S. forces had fired 600 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 4,300 precision-guided bombs in the first six days of the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

Strikes have battered official buildings, including the state television's offices, Saddam's palaces and positions of the elite Republican Guard which blocks the entrance to the capital.

General McChrystal, the joint staff vice director of operations, said that coalition forces had advanced 355 kilometers (220 miles) into Iraqi territory, despite sandstorms and fierce resistance from Iraqi troops hampering the offensive.

In the meanwhile, dozens of U.S. marines were injured when their forces fired on one another around the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, a correspondent with the troops reported Thursday.

The correspondent said the command post headquarters was apparently hit with shell and mortar fire leaving 37 wounded, including three in critical and two in serious condition, according to officers.

He saw at least six vehicles destroyed in the compound, including three truck transporters, two Humvee all-terrain vehicles and one truck-mounted crane.

Officers said the headquarters compound returned fire but casualty reports from the other side were not immediately available.

A U.S. Central Command spokesman in Qatar said the incident was being investigated but he could provide no further details. "We've heard about that," he said.

Several invasion forces have already been killed in "friendly fire" incidents since the beginning of the war a week ago.

"When such friendly fire incidents occur repeatedly, there is a problem with leadership and control," former Egyptian Chief of Staff Saad Al-shazli told Al-Jazeera satellite channel.