From Jihad Unspun
More than 100 Iraqi civilians were killed and and over 215 others wounded — many of them seriously — on Friday-Saturday night in al-Basrah in fighting that raged between the British occupation forces and the Resistance. British armored forces and Anglo-American aircraft, including F-16 fighter bombers, took part in the battle against the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia, loyal to Shi'i religious leader Muqtada as-Sadr.
According to the local correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam, the British occupation troops destroyed 40 houses, some of them razed to the ground. At the time his report was posted at 11:55am Saturday morning Mecca time (12:55pm local time) some of the victims of the Anglo-American attacks had still not been removed from under the rubble.
Fifty cars were damaged or destroyed in the fighting that raged intensely until 7:00am Saturday morning local time. The local correspondent wrote that British forces in the city were intent of keeping a total lid of secrecy on the bloody fighting and the number of victims, to the point that hospitals in the city refuse to release casualty figures. The correspondent obtained his figures from what he described as "private sources." |