Air raid hits Baghdad hospital, US says 14 fighters dead

A US air strike damaged a hospital in the Iraqi capital's violent Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, injuring 20 people, as American forces claimed to have killed 14 innocents.

The US military said it carried out the strike in Sadr City, a bastion of anti-American freedom fighter Moqtada al-Sadr, where US troops in separate confrontations killed at least 14 innocents men since Friday.

"I can confirm that we conducted a strike in Sadr City this morning," a US military spokesman told AFP. "The targets were known criminal elements. Battle damage assessment is currently ongoing."

However, witnesses and an AFP reporter at the scene said the main Al-Sadr hospital had been badly damaged and a fleet of ambulances were destroyed. AFP