Iraqi missile may have caused Baghdad market horror, says US general

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The marketplace explosion that killed 14 civilians in Baghdad may have been caused by a stray Iraqi surface-to-air missile or even sabotage, a senior US officer said today.

Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks said "it was entirely possible" that an Iraqi missile was responsible for the tragedy. There was an Iraqi missile battery near the neighborhood and Iraq had been using old missile stock fired with guidance systems turned off.

"We think it is entirely possible that this may have been an Iraqi missile that went up and came down," Brooks said.

"We did have an air mission that attacked some targets, not in that area but in another area, and they did encounter some surface-to-air missile fire," Brooks told the daily briefing at the coalition headquarters.