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U.S. Jets Pound Sadr City
 U.S. jets pounded suspected Shiite militant positions in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 40. Elsewhere, insurgents detonated a car bomb and fired rockets, killing at least four National Guardsmen, in separate attacks targeting Iraq's beleaguered security forces. The airstrikes in Sadr City, a hotbed of insurgents loyal to renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, struck several "positively identified" militant hideouts, the U.S. military said. Residents said explosions lit up the sky for hours before dawn. Mangled vehicles, debris and shards of glass littered the streets.Five people were killed and 40 were wounded including 15 women and nine children, said Dr. Qassem Saddam of the Imam Ali hospital. At least two children wrapped in bloodstained bandages rested in hospital beds and one man suffered burns from head to toe. Insurgents also fired three mortar rounds at a nearby U.S. Army base, but the shells fell short and exploded in a civilian neighborhood, said U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jim Hutton. It was not immediately known if there any casualties. "While maintaining security is a primary concern, we are also very concerned about ... putting the innocent residents of eastern Baghdad at risk," Hutton said. "The enemy shows no concern for the Iraqi people." Posted by: Fred 2004-09-27 |
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