Terror bombings of civilians picks up

HILLA, Iraq (AFP) - Reports of coalition forces killing dozens of Iraqi civilians stoked growing international unease at the US-led war, already high after seven women and children were shot dead at a US checkpoint in Central Iraq (news - web sites).


Thirty-three people, including women and children, died and 310 were wounded in a coalition bombing on the outskirts of the farming town of Hilla, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the capital on Tuesday, local hospital director Murtada Abbas said.


He was speaking at the Hilla hospital where a large number of children lay wounded under blankets on the floor due to a shortage of beds.


Fifteen members of one family were killed nearby late Monday when their pickup truck was blown up by a rocket from a US Apache helicopter in the region of Haidariya near Hilla, the sole survivor of the attack told AFP.


Razek al-Kazem al-Khafaji, sitting among 15 coffins in the local hospital, said he lost his wife, six children, his father, his mother, his three brothers and their wives.


The British and US air strikes on Baghdad accounted for a further 19 people dead and more than 100 wounded since Monday evening, Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said on the 13th day of the US-led attempt to unseat Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and disarm Iraq.