The U.S. military acknowledged Wednesday that it may have been responsible for a pair of explosions in a Baghdad market that left at least 15 civilians dead.
The blasts — which enraged locals said were caused by cruise missiles — left charred bodies and mangled cars littering the streets. A foreign reporter counted 15 bodies, but local residents told a BBC correspondent that the death toll was in the "dozens." Another BBC reporter who visited the scene described it as "apocalyptic."
A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command initially said that "[the Pentagon] can't say that we had anything to do with that at this point."
A few hours later, the U.S. military released a statement referring to "possible" civilian damage in a raid on Baghdad.
U.S. President George W. Bush, left, gets briefed by Dan Morris, assistant director of intelligence at Joint Operations Center at at MacDill Air Force Base on Wednesday in Tampa, Fla. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
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"Coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons to target nine Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles and launchers in Baghdad," the statement said. "While the Coalition goes to great lengths to avoid injury to civilians and damage to civilian facilities, in some cases, such damage is unavoidable when the regime places military weapons near civilian areas."
U.S. President George W. Bush did not mention the incident in a fiery pep talk in Florida in which he lauded the ability of coalition forces to attack "vital military targets with lethal precision.
"The military is making good progress in Iraq, yet this war is far from over," he told a boisterous crowd of military personnel and their families at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. "In Iraq today, our military is focussed and unwavering. ... nothing will divert us from our clear mission."
Shortly before Mr. Bush spoke, reports emerged that an extra 30,000 U.S. troops are headed to the Gulf, including the the high-tech 4th Infantry Division. The division, based in Texas, will fly out imminently, a spokesman told Reuters. The troops, originally slated for an invasion across Turkey's southeastern border, have been awaiting orders for more than two months.
Mr. Bush made repeated reference to the quick successes of U.S. troops, who on Wednesday inched closer to Baghdad while British forces fought on the fringes of the beleaguered city of Basra.
In his half-hour speech, interrupted at least a dozen times by waves of cheering and applause, Mr. Bush said that "there will be a day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime, and that day is drawing near."
"This band of war criminals has been put on notice, the day of Iraq's liberation will also be a day of justice."
The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division drew to within 80 kilometres of Baghdad on Wednesday, with other American forces expected to join soon in pressuring the capital from several directions. Allied bombardments over the past two days have pounded positions of Iraq's Republican Guard, the elite divisions assigned to defend the city.
"Day by day, Saddam Hussein is losing his grip on Iraq," Mr. Bush said in Florida, adding that invading forces are "taking every action we can to prevent the Iraqi regime from using its hidden weapons of mass destruction."
Hoping to cripple the Iraqi government's communications, the allies attacked the state-run television headquarters in Baghdad before dawn Wednesday with missiles and aerial bombing. The station's international satellite signal was temporarily knocked off the air, with regular broadcasts resuming as scheduled after daybreak.
Further south, British forces on the edge of Basra waged artillery battles with more than 1,000 Iraqi militiamen, who reportedly also faced an insurrection by civilians opposed to Saddam Hussein.
Gen. Brooks called the situation in Basra "very confusing" and said that events are still unfolding. Reuters reported that the main Shia group, the Tehran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said that there were only "some disturbances" in Basra.
The Iraqis also denied that there was any uprising in Basra. "The situation is stable," Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told the Arab satellite television station al-Jazeera.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Iraqis were understandably reluctant to act openly against Saddam Hussein, after previous uprisings were crushed while foreign governments stood by.
"People in Iraq are simply watching and waiting to see what will happen," he told the House of Commons. This time around, he added, coalition forces should follow through on promises of assistance, when Iraqis "are in a position to rise up."
With a report from Associated Press and The Globe and Mail's Alan Freeman in London
