Iraqis say 50 dead in Baghdad market air raid

7.30am - by KHALED YACOUB OWEIS

BAGHDAD - Iraqis say more than 50 people were killed today in an air raid on a popular Baghdad market after the United States inflicted some of the heaviest air strikes of the war on the capital.

Dr. Osama Sakhari at Al Noor Hospital said he had counted 55 people killed and more than 47 wounded from the air raid at the market in the city's Shula neighbourhood.

Reuters correspondent Hassan Hafidh said he had personally counted five bodies in one of the hospital's morgue units.

Arabic language television stations, which put the death toll at more than 50, said searchers were looking for more victims, and showed pictures of people carrying coffins out of the hospital, which was surrounded by large crowds.

Abu Dhabi television said US cruise missiles may have hit the market and showed a gaping hole on one street and damaged cars. US officials said they had no knowledge of such reports.

Earlier, US defence officials said a radar-avoiding B-2 stealth bomber had dropped two earth-shattering 4,600-pound bombs on a communications centre in downtown Baghdad.

It was the first use of the so-called "bunker-busters" on Baghdad since the war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began nine days ago.

Correspondent Nadim Ladki saw two damaged communications centres in the capital. One big building had been struck at its base. A tangled pile of smouldering rubble was all that was left of a smaller facility. Many telephone lines were knocked out.

Playing on US and British fears of being sucked into bloody street battles, especially in a capital heavily defended by elite Republican Guards, Iraq swore to fight on and promised "living hell" for the invaders.

Iraqis converged on mosques for Friday prayers, enraged rather than cowed by the US bombardment.

"You can see and hear the missiles and bombs raining down on us and yet Muslims are coming to the house of God to pray," said the preacher at the "Mother of All Battles" Mosque.

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said overnight raids on the capital had killed seven civilians and wounded 92. Witnesses said eight more people were killed when a Baghdad office of the ruling Baath Party was demolished in a later raid. Both tolls were given before the deaths at the market.

Sahaf also said US forces had used cluster bombs against the Shi'ite shrine city of Najaf, killing 26 civilians and wounding 60.

In the ground war, an American officer said US forces had fought around 1,500 Iraqis overnight near Najaf, 100 miles south of the capital, but he had no word on casualties.

Reuters reporter Luke Baker, near Najaf, said US forces had used tanks and heavy artillery. "The battle raged for a few hours. It finished about 3 am (12pm NZT)," Baker said.

Sahaf said Iraqi forces had destroyed 33 tanks and armored vehicles and killed four invaders in the area. The United States reported four Marines missing near Nassiriya to the south.

Reuters correspondents with US units, some of which have raced to as little as 80km from Baghdad, said the columns seemed in no hurry to get closer than that for now.

Officers said they needed to bring fresh stocks of food, fuel and ammunition down the long supply lines from Kuwait.

Britain's Army chief, Mike Jackson, dismissed suggestions the campaign had become bogged down.

"Armies cannot keep moving forever without stopping from time to time to regroup, to ensure their supplies are up," he told a London news conference. "It's a pause while people get sorted out for what comes next."

In Washington, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "The (war) plan is sound. It is being executed and it is on track."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq