US general: Baghdad market missile was Iraqi

The missile which landed on a Baghdad shopping street killing and injuring scores of civilians was probably a stray Iraqi weapon, a senior US military commander said today.

Brigadier General Vince Brooks said US planes were on a bombing mission at the time but over a different part of the city.

He said US weapons systems had now been checked and he was “certain” that all their bombs had hit their intended targets.

The General claimed US aircraft were engaged by Iraqi surface-to-air missiles which were old and did not have radar turned on.

He said it was “entirely possible that this was an Iraqi missile that went up and came down“.

He also told a press conference at Central Command in Qatar that the disaster could have been a deliberate attack by the Iraqi regime on its own people.