ANTICHRIST MASSACRE AS AMMO DUMP OP BLOWS UP 1 SQUARE KILOMETER OF BAGHDAD

Many civilians killed in Iraqi arms dump blast
By Rosalind Russell and Michael Georgy
Reuters
April 26, 2003
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=272790


-------------------------------------------------
photos:

http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-04-26T112304Z_01_SMI622972_RTRUKOP_2_PICTURE0.jpg
IRAQI MAN CARRIES HIS BURNED SON AFTER BAGHDAD BLAST
Kudeir, a 30-year-old Iraqi worker, carries his badly burned nine-month-old son Amir Yas to safety in the Zaafaraniya neighbourhood in the outskirts of Baghdad April 26, 2003. Up to 40 Iraqi civilians were killed and many badly hurt in a series of explosions near Baghdad on Saturday, an Iraqi medic said after an arms dump blew up on the outskirts of the capital. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-04-26T130706Z_01_SMI622972_RTRUKOP_2_PICTURE2.jpg
IRAQI CIVILIANS STAND BY DESTROYED HOUSE AFTER MUNITIONS STORE BLEW UP IN BAGHDAD
Iraqi civilians stand by the ruins of houses in Zaafaraniya neighbourhood in the outskirts of Baghdad after an explosion April 26, 2003. U.S. forces said troops guarding a store of Iraqi arms near Baghdad came under attack on Saturday and that a device the attackers fired caused an explosion, killing at least six Iraqi civilians. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-04-26T130706Z_01_SMI622972_RTRUKOP_2_PICTURE0.jpg
WOUNDED MAN VIEWS DESTROYED HOME AFTER EXPLOSION IN BAGHDAD AMMUNITION DEPOT
A wounded Iraqi man views his destroyed home after an explosion in the Baghdad suburb of Zaafaraniya April 26, 2003. Many Iraqi civilians were believed killed on Saturday when an arms dump exploded outside Baghdad sending rockets scything into nearby housing, and residents blamed U.S. troops for the tragedy. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
-------------------------------------------------


ZAAFARANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Many Iraqi civilians are believed killed after an arms dump blew up on the outskirts of Baghdad, sending rockets flying into houses over a wide area and sparking a string of further explosions.

With shrapnel, live ammunition and unexploded rockets strewn far and wide, the precise extent of the damage and casualties was far from clear. One Iraqi medic put the death toll at 40, U.S. Central Command said only that at least six were killed.


------------------------------------
"Saddam was a butcher, and now this"
Resident Hussein Hafez
------------------------------------


There was also confusion over the cause of the blast on Saturday, which the U.S. military blamed on unidentified attackers who fired a flare or incendiary device into the store of Iraqi ammunition.

Local residents said U.S. forces had been packing cars with Iraqi weapons over the last three days and detonating them at the site, but a U.S. officer, Colonel John Peabody, denied that.

Some turned their anger on the Americans, shooting and forcing them back from the scene for a while until they joined forces to search for casualties, soldiers said.

Whatever the precise cause of the explosions, they are likely to complicate U.S. efforts to win Iraqi hearts and minds after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

A local medic travelling in an Iraqi civilian ambulance ferrying casualties between the blast scene and a hospital said there had been many victims.

Asked how many were killed, he replied: "Forty."

The head doctor at Zaafaraniya hospital, Shaker Nasser, said his unit had received six dead and 13 wounded, adding that other hospitals in the capital were also taking casualties.

"This morning at eight o'clock I watched rockets land near my house and I hid on the ground," he told Reuters.

Some soldiers were also wounded, an U.S. Army sergeant-major told Reuters at Zaafaraniya, a mixed residential and industrial suburb on the southern edge of the capital.

DEATH TOLL UNCLEAR

Local resident Tamir Kalaal said 14 of his relatives, including his father, brother and wife, were killed when a rocket destroyed his home.

"I am the only one that survived. All I have left is her," he told Reuters, sobbing and pointing to his one-month-old daughter. "Those Americans did this," he said, shaking his finger in anger.

Near the scene, U.S. Army Sergeant-Major Gary Coker said many people were trapped in buildings.

The series of explosions began at about 8 a.m. (0400 GMT) and seven hours later sporadic blasts were still being heard.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement issued in Qatar that an unknown number of individuals attacked U.S. troops guarding the store and one soldier was wounded.

"During the attack, the assailant fired an unknown incendiary device into the cache, causing it to catch fire and explode. The explosion caused the destruction of the cache as well as a nearby building," the statement said.

"Ten civilian casualties from this incident have been found. Six of them are dead, while four are wounded."

Central Command said the location of the ammunition dump near a residential area was an example of the former regime's disregard for the safety of civilians.

Troops near the scene said the attackers fired four flares into the store, sparking explosions that shot missiles as far as three km (two miles) away.

U.S. Army Captain Patrick Sullivan, from an engineering unit, told Reuters his unit had been at the dump for a week and "during that time we have not destroyed any ammunition".

Peabody said about 80 missiles, including FROG-7 short-range surface-to-surface rockets, had been stored at the site.

FURY AND DESPERATION

Tractors were digging through the rubble of homes in Zaarafaniya, a district of mostly two-storey, sand-coloured cement houses, in search of survivors.

"We dug out six people who died, with our own hands," Nassir Abdelrahman told Reuters, as hundreds of people gathered.

"There is much confusion, many buildings have been destroyed where the missiles have gone off...there is glass everywhere," added local resident Ali Hassan.

Another man who was hurt said that five people, four women and a child, were killed in the house next door.

"There was a huge explosion next to our house. Fires started all around. Explosions ripped through the neighbourhood," the injured man, who gave his name only as Mohammed, told Reuters.

An enraged man at the scene vented his fury at the U.S. forces who took the capital two weeks ago: "Why? why?...The war is finished. A baby, a woman, 14 under this building," he screamed in English.

"May God exact his revenge," added a woman, whose head was bandaged. She was seated next to a young girl whose dress was soaked in blood from a head injury. The girl's leg was being bandaged by a soldier.

About 500 Iraqi men, chanting anti-American, pro-Islam slogans, drove in a convoy of trucks, buses and cars out of the suburb -- the first truck carrying six coffins, apparently containing bodies.

"No Americans or Saddam; Yes, Yes to Islam!" the men chanted in Arabic, some of them flying green Islamic flags and banners. Among the slogans were two in English: "Stop Explosions Near Civilians" and "The Terror After War".

The blasts also sparked an angry demonstration in central Baghdad where protesters carried banners reading "No bombs between houses! Yes, yes to freedom!" and "U.S. forces kill innocents with Saddam's weapons in Zaafaraniya".

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=272790