IRAQ: Eight killed in U.S. airstrike on Basra

Record ID: 339203

  • Title: IRAQ: Eight killed in U.S. airstrike on Basra
  • Date: 7th April 2008
  • Summary: MAN WALKING AMID RUBBLE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WITNESS SAYING: "At 11:00 at night something hit the house and seven people are gone. An American plane hit the house at 11:00 at night."
  • Embargoed: 22nd April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA7BVXG7M2UO6VQJDKCK33OL929
  • Story Text: U.S. airstrike in Basra kills eight people.
    An explosion destroyed a house in Iraq's southern city of Basra overnight and Iraqi police said eight people had died.
    Reuters television footage on Monday (April 7) showed rescue workers pulling bodies from the rubble of a house that had been completely destroyed.
    Relatives wailed in grief and children picked through the rubble.
    "At 11:00 p.m at night something hit the house and seven people are gone. An American plane hit the house at 11:00p.m at night," said a witness.
    Neighbours said they believed the blast was caused by a U.S. air strike, but British forces, responsible for U.S. and British military activity in the area, denied any role and said they had no explanation for the blast.
    "Coalition and Iraqi security forces were not involved in the incident," they said in a statement.
    Basra has seen numerous U.S. air strikes over the past two weeks since Iraqi security forces launched a crackdown on Shi'ite militia last month.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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