CNN REPORTS: US STRIKE DAMAGES IRAQI HOSPITAL

U.S. attack damages hospital, Iraqi official says

Story Highlights
NEW: Guided rockets hit target of "known criminal elements," U.S. says
At least 28 people wounded in U.S. attack near hospital, Iraqi says
NEW: Turkish military says it killed 150 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq
Roadside bomb kills Iraqi traffic officer, wounds eight people

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/03/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 28 people were wounded Saturday morning in a U.S. attack on a building near a hospital in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City slum, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Employees of al-Sadr Hospital were among the wounded and the facility's property sustained damage in the strike, including some ambulances, the official said.

In a statement, the U.S. military said the strike targeted "known criminal elements."
"We did hit the target, which was a criminal command and control center, which was near a hospital," the military said, adding that it was assessing damages.

The Interior Ministry official called the attack an airstrike, but the U.S. military said it was a guided multiple-launch rocket system strike. These guided rockets are launched from armored vehicles.

Al-Sadr Hospital is one of the two main medical facilities in the district, where Iraqi and U.S. troops have been battling Shiite militias loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The strike apparently left a large hole in the ground near the hospital, video footage showed. Chunks of concrete and other rubble covered the ground, and car windows were shattered.
The southern portion of Sadr City has been walled off so that U.S. military and Iraqi security forces can control movements there.

Other developments
• Turkey's military said Saturday it had killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq in an operation that ended early Friday, according to a statement on the military's Web site. Turkey has been staging attacks against rebels with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, in the Qandil Mountain region in northern Iraq. A PKK official said Friday there were no PKK casualties.
• A roadside bomb exploded Saturday at a traffic patrol in the western part of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi traffic policeman and wounding eight others, including six traffic police officers, a ministry official said.
• Overnight, six people were killed and 25 were wounded in Sadr City, the Interior Ministry said. The U.S. military said it killed six "criminals." On Friday, U.S. forces killed eight suspected militants during 10 hours of fighting in the Shiite neighborhood, a military statement said.
• A U.S. soldier on combat patrol in eastern Baghdad was killed Friday when a roadside bomb struck the soldier's vehicle, the military said. The number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war stands at 4,066, including eight Defense Department contractors.