US blames Iraqis in war of words over slaughter in market

The blasts that killed at least 14 civilians in a Baghdad market on Wednesday were probably caused by an errant Iraqi weapon, not US missiles, American commanders said yesterday. Brigadier General Vince Brooks said exhaustive checks on all sorties flown by Anglo-American jets that day had shown that all released bombs and missiles had hit their intended targets.

As residents of the al-Shaab district began to clear the wreckage of their homes and businesses in a mixture of disbelief and fury, Brig Gen Brooks told a news conference at Central Command in Qatar that no weapons had gone astray. He said: "They hit their target; we're certain of that."

Instead, pilots had come under fire from "uncontrolled" Iraqi surface-to-air missiles, launched without their radar guidance systems switched on, which could have plummeted into the market. The general suggested the attack may also have been the deliberate work of Iraqi security forces trying to score a propaganda coup.

He said: "We think it is entirely possible that this may have been, in fact, an Iraqi missile that went up and came down; or, given the behaviour of the regime recently, it might have been a deliberate attack inside the town."

The analysis was the latest twist in a tortuous 24-hour effort by the American military to apportion blame.

Wednesday March 26

10.26am: First reports from Iraqi defence officials say two missiles have hit a residential district in Baghdad, causing "many, many casualties".

11.36: American officials at Central Command in Qatar say they "cannot confirm the incident". A spokesman says: "We're seeing those same reports. We're looking into it."

11.39: In Downing Street, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said Britain was seeking information about the blast, adding: "We have always accepted there will be very regrettable civilian casualties."

1.37pm: Central Command continues to say it has no information on who caused the deaths. Brig Gen Brooks, the deputy operations director, says: "We don't know they were ours. We can't say we had anything to do with it. We do everything physically and scientifically possible to be precise in our targeting."

3.23: Brig Gen Brooks appears to hint at Iraqi guilt. He says: "We have seen a number of things which tell us what meets the eye isn't always necessarily true." He lists underhand tactics used by Iraqis.

5.08: President Bush tells a rally in Florida that American forces are striking Iraqi forces with great accuracy. He says: "Our pilots and cruise missiles have struck vital military targets with lethal precision."

5.30: Captain Frank Thorp, a US spokesman in Qatar, says: "We are not going into the number of bullets or missiles that go astray. We will never get into win or loss. We will never get into that number because there is no need."

6.47: Central Command admits US jets were targeting missile launchers in a residential area of Baghdad at the time of the market attack. A spokesman says: "Coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons to target nine Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles and launchers in Baghdad. The missiles and launchers were within a civilian residential area. Most of the missiles were positioned less than 300ft from homes.

"A full assessment of the operation is ongoing. Military targets, such as the missiles and launchers in Baghdad, are a threat to coalition military forces and will be attacked. 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."

7.33: In Washington, the Pentagon again denies US involvement. Major-General Stanley McChrystal, vice-director of operations for the Joint Staff, says: "Coalition forces did not target a marketplace nor were any bombs or missiles dropped or fired there." But he adds: "We don't know for a fact whether it was US or Iraqi. And we can't make any assumption on either at this point. We'll continue to look and see if we missed anything. But another explanation could be that [Iraqi] triple-A [anti-aircraft artillery] or a surface-to-air missile that missed its target fell back into the marketplace area."

9.28: Officials in Washington admit an errant US missile may have been responsible. One defence official says: "Is there a potential for an errant missile to go astray like a Tomahawk (cruise missile) or something like that? Yes."

Thursday March 27

12.55pm: Central Command says an Iraqi missile was probably responsible. Brig Gen Brooks says Iraq has been using old ones with guidance switched off. He adds: "We won't have a final answer until we're in Baghdad ourselves."

Al-Jazeera breaking taboos

To some it is the bin Laden channel, to others it is the mouthpiece of the CIA and it has been accused of being a propaganda tool of Saddam Hussein. But al-Jazeera carries on its work regardless.

In just seven years, the 24-hour news channel based in Qatar has grown from a small cable channel to become the most singular voice in global broadcasters.

Staffed by 755 people at 27 bureaux across the world, the station claims to reach 35 million homes, most of them in the Middle East but also in Europe, North America and Australia. It is available in Britain via satellite providers.

Al-Jazeera has made startling its audiences a badge of pride in its mission to break down taboos.

Faisal al-Qasim, its star presenter, said recently: "We tackle the most sensitive issues, be they political, social, cultural or economic."