UPDATED ON:
SATURDAY, MAY 03, 2008
14:13 MECCA TIME, 11:13 GMT
 
NEWS MIDDLE EAST
Iraq hospital 'damaged by US raid'
Women and children were among those injured in the Sadr City raid [AFP]
At least 28 people have been wounded after a hospital in Baghdad's Sadr City district, a stronghold of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, was damaged in what witnesses described as a US air strike. 
A medic at the al-Sadr hospital said women and children were among the wounded in the raid, which an Iraqi security official said took place at around 10am local time (0700 GMT) on Saturday.
The US military confirmed the attack but said it targeted "known criminal elements".
"I can confirm that we conducted a strike in Sadr City this morning. The targets were known criminal elements. Battle damage assessment is currently ongoing," a US military spokesman said.
 

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Witnesses said the target of the air raid, in which US forces fired several missiles, was a small house adjacent to the al-Sadr hospital and used as a rest area by Shia pilgrims.

 

The impact of the attack damaged more than a dozen ambulances belonging to the hospital, one of the three main medical facilities in the district, and shattered the windows of the building.

 

Fighters killed

 

Elsewhere, US soldiers killed 14 suspected Shia fighters and an American soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in the latest clashes in Baghdad, the US military said on Saturday.

 

Another 100 people were wounded in clashes on Friday and Saturday in Sadr City, Iraqi health officials said.

 

The US military said 10 fighters were killed in clashes on Friday, including a sniper and a triggerman suspected of planting armour-piercing roadside bombs in Sadr City and the adjacent Ubaydi area.

 

US forces used aircraft and an Abrams battle tank in the attack.

 

The soldiers also killed four fighters early on Saturday elsewhere in Baghdad, the US military said.

 

Several vehicles and buildings were destroyed in the clashes, Iraqi police said.

 

Separately, the US military announced on Saturday that an American soldier died of wounds sustained the previous day in a roadside bomb that struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad.

 

The announcement comes a day after the military said another roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad killed a US soldier.

Source: Agencies
Related:
Iraq threatens assault on militias  
(30 Apr 2008)
Several die in fresh Iraq clashes  
(27 Apr 2008)
Sadr clarifies 'open war' statement  
(25 Apr 2008)
Profile: Muqtada al-Sadr  
(20 Apr 2008)
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