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U.S. Missiles Strike Near Iraq Hospital

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The New York Times

Published: May 4, 2008

BAGHDAD - The ugly, daily fight for ground in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City unfolded Saturday at a small mosque next door to a hospital, damaging the hospital and all its ambulances, and near a group of children who were injured as they gathered tin cans to sell for salvage.

The first hit came after a night of clashes in the neighborhood, as American troops fired at least three "precision-guided munitions" in the area of the Sadr General Hospital at 10 a.m.

The target was a small building next to the hospital that neighbors said was used as a rest house and place of prayer for hospital employees, pilgrims and neighborhood residents.

The Americans described the building in a statement as "a criminal element command and control center."

"Intelligence reports indicate the command and control center was used by criminal elements to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces and innocent Iraqi citizens," the statement said.

Next door, in an area used as a parking lot for the hospital's ambulances, a second missile hit, destroying three ambulances and shattering the windows in about 10 others. A third missile hit a generator that supplied the neighborhood. The hospital's generator was not damaged.

Twenty-eight people were injured in the attacks, said Abdul Hussain Qassim, the hospital's official record keeper of admissions.

About an hour later, at the front line between the southern part of the neighborhood that is held by U.S. and Iraqi military units and the northern section that is held by Shiite militias, the group of children was hit, according to a child and one adult who was injured there and brought to the Sadr hospital.

The military announced on Saturday that one American soldier was killed Friday when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device while on a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad, and four Marines were killed on Thursday by a roadside bomb in Anbar province.

No other details on the Thursday deaths were released and the names of the Marines were withheld pending notification of their families.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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