PERSIAN GULF WAR
Iraq claims 500 civilians dead in Allied attack
DHAHKAN, Saudi Arabia
(AP) — Allied warplanes, in a
pinpoint bombing that sent
shock waves far beyond Iraq,
destroyed an underground
structure in Baghdad on
Wednesday, and officials said
500 civilians were killed. Iraq
called it a bomb shelter, the
United States a military com
mand center.
By nightfall, 14 hours after
the pre-dawn attack, crews
were still pulling charred bod
ies. some of them children,
from the rubble, an Associated
Press correspondent reported
from Baghdad. Distraught rela
tives crowded the smoke-filled
streets.
But the U.S. command in
Saudi Arabia, and later the
White House, said the subterra
nean concrete facility had been
positively identified as an Iraqi
military command-and-control
center, and the right target was
hit.
"W'e don’t know why civil
ians were at that location,"
said Marlin Fitzwater, Presi
dent Bush's spokesman. Ameri
can officials blamed Iraq's lead
ership for the tragedy, saying it
had put civilians "in harm’s
way."
The AP correspondent. Dilip
Ganguly, inspected the ruins
with other journalists and said
he saw no obvious sign that it
had a military use
Coupled with continuing ci
vilian deaths elsewhere, the
Baghdad huinhmg was sure to
inflame an international debate
over the war's costs and tactics.
A senior Iraqi official said earli
er this week that "thousands"
of civilians have been killed in
the air war
The deadly Baghdad air
strike was among 2.800 sorties
mounted by Operation Desert
Storm on Wednesday in favor
ably clear skies
About one-third of the mis
sions were directed at targets in
southern Iraq and Iraqi-occu
pied Kuwait, aimed at "soften
ing up" the dug-in positions of
Iraqi troops before the expected
ground offensive by the U.S.
led alliance.
Before word flashed from
Baghdad of Wednesday's dev
astating attack. U.S. officers
told reporters in Riyadh, the
Saudi capital, that the Iraqi
military had managed to main
tain communications links de
spite more than three weeks of
nonstop bombing It was clear
U.S. strategists were anxious to
knock out more of these com
mand-and-control networks.
The night's raids on Bagh
dad. described by residents as
among the worst of the air war,
began about 8 p.m. Tuesday
and lasted 12 hours. Canguly
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reported Telecommunications
centers in two Baghdad dis
tricts were among the sites
bombed.
At about 4 a m . it was the
turn of the 40 foot-deep under
ground structure which U S
officials acknowledge was built
as a bomb shelter in a!
Amerieh. a middle-class neigh
borhood.
Iraqi officials said 400 to 500
people had moved into the fa
cility after the t>ombing began
|an 17, and hundreds more
joint'd them because this
vvt't'k's ixtmhmg was particular
ly intense
At least two weapons U S
spokesmen said they were two
ixunhs from planes struc k
the shelter, one slamming into
the entrant e and cutting off the
lone escape route with debris,
the second piercing the ‘( foot
tbit k roof and exploding inside
the structure, the Iraqis said
Kmergency teams and local
residents who rushed to the silt?
found an inferno Rescue ef
forts proceeded slowly, but by
mid morning more than 40
charred bodies were laid out on
the ground. Ganguly reported
By nightfall. Abdul Kazak
Hassan al Janahv. a supervisor
of the facility, said 2:t!> bodies
had been recovered and at least
.ilMI more were (relieved still
trapped in the wreckage
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