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Iraqis blast "criminal" Bush after 15 injured in air raid
Iraqis blast "criminal" Bush after 15 injured in air raid
NAHRAN OMAR, Iraq, Feb 12 (AFP) -
US President George W. "Bush, the son, is more of a criminal than his father," an angry farmer protested Monday, a day after 15 civilians were injured in a US and British air raid on southern Iraq.
The younger Bush is "much more criminal," charged Muslim Enad, who had children in his family among the injured.
George Bush, the father, who was president of the United States during the 1991 Gulf War when a US-led coalition ousted Iraqi occupation forces from Kuwait, is a hated figure in Iraq.
"Three shells hit my fields and threw up huge clouds of smokes. It was a cowardly act. We are innocent families and want to live in peace," the 60-year-old farmer told AFP on his land in Nahran Omar, in the Basra province of southern Iraq.
Adel Saleh, the hospital director in nearby Al-Deir, said eight children and four women were among 15 injured, raising the injury toll of seven given on Sunday by a military spokesman.
Two women had abortions and two of the other casualties were cases of broken limbs, said Saleh.
Homes in Nahran Omar, an area rich in agricultural land and oilfields, were not directly hit in the raid. But several collapsed walls, broken windows and four craters among the wealth of palm trees were left behind on Monday.
From her hospital bed, Hosnah Maktuf said she had had to abort in her eighth month of pregnancy because of the shock.
"My son, who is 12 years old, was hit in the eye by part of a shell as he worked in the wheat field. I heard an explosion and then through the smoke I saw that my son had been wounded," she said.
Abdul Jalil Daud Salman, a 27-year-old farmer, said that the air raid came at around 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) as most people in the village of 25 homes were out in the fields.
"I fractured my right leg as a wall collapsed in my home," said a 38-year-old woman, Sajida.
The Iraqi military said "enemy warplanes bombed civilian installations and services." Apart from the wounded, 17 homes were damaged before Iraqi anti-air defenses "forced the enemy planes to flee."
Incidents occur on an almost daily basis between Iraq and a US and British force that enforces flight restrictions on the northern and southern parts of the country imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.
Baghdad frequently accuses the warplanes of targetting civilians.
Iraq says 323 people have been killed and 964 injured by raids since December 1998 when its anti-aircraft artillery started to challenge the overflights following a US-British air war.