IRAQ: At least five Iraqi children were killed yesterday after a roadside bomb blew up an American convoy in Baghdad. One US soldier died in the attack.
The deaths came during a violent weekend in Iraq in which at least 75 Iraqis were killed and the number of US soldiers killed this month so far rose to 110.
Iraqi witnesses said that after the explosion US forces opened fire indiscriminately, killing four children and wounding eight. The US military said gunmen firing on US troops shot the children.
The children had left their nearby school to look at the burning Humvee, the witnesses said. Children and some passersby were "celebrating" the attack near the vehicle when the shots were fired.
"I saw a child lying on the street with a bullet hole in his neck and another in his side," said a driver who witnessed the incident. "He had his schoolbag on his back. Some 15 minutes later his relatives came and took his body away."
A nearby hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of four children with gunshot wounds.
The targeted Humvee was part of a military convoy driving along the street. Two soldiers in the Humvee were evacuated from the scene by military medics, they said.
In Mosul, four civilians were killed yesterday and 13 injured in rocket attacks, and the US military said a helicopter gunship had killed 25 "enemy personnel" taking refuge in a house 10 miles south-east of Falluja. In a rocket attack in a crowded market in Baghdad's Sadr City, six people were killed on Saturday and 38 wounded.
There were also ominous warnings yesterday that the US military is preparing to enter the holy city of Najaf, where the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has been holed up with thousands of armed supporters since launching an uprising against the US occupation last month.
US troops could enter the secular part of the city shortly but would stay away from holy sites, Gen Mark Hertling said. The military wanted to impose a degree of control in Najaf, he added.
The US administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, described the unresolved situation in Najaf as "highly dangerous". Without naming Sheikh al-Sadr's Mahdi militia by name, he claimed that militants were stockpiling weapons and ammunition in mosques, shrines and schools. Iraqi citizens should not tolerate this, he added.
Meanwhile, Iraq's main Basra oil terminal remained shut last night after Saturday's seaborne suicide bomb attacks while it undergoes damage assessment and a review of security. Three US sailors were killed in the attack. Conceding that a major disaster had been avoided, officials said exports could resume as early as today from the terminal, which accounts for around 85 per cent of Iraq's 1.9 million barrels per day of exports.