U.S. troops bomb hospital and refuse to pay for damages

By Anwar Jumaa

Azzaman, May 19, 2008-05-19

Health authorities in the Province of Babylon say U.S. troops are paying “peanuts” to cover for the extensive damage they have inflicted on the main hospital in the southern city of Hilla.

The troops say they bombed the hospital “by mistake” and they have offered $6500 as compensation.

But Mostafa al-Hiti, chairman of the Health and Environment Commission at the Iraqi Parliament, said “the money is not enough to cover for the broken class.”

Hiti said the health authorities at the hospital in the provincial canter of Hilla are determined to either get the U.S. pay for all the damage..

Still worse, Hiti, said the U.S. was offering $100 for the families and relatives of those who were injured and killed as a result of what it allegedly calls “misfire.”

Hiti gave no figure of the casualties but the money other officials described as “an insult” which has further angered the bereaved families.