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Feb 2021
9m 51s

How US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air ra...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

More than 400 civilians were killed when two US precision bombs hit the Amiriya air raid shelter in western Baghdad on the morning of 13 February 1991. The Americans claimed that the building had served as a command and control centre for Saddam Hussein's forces. It was the largest single case of civilian casualities that ocurred during Operation Desert Storm, the US-led campaign to force Iraq to withdraw from neighbouring Kuwait. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from one Iraqi woman whose four children were inside the air raid shelter the day it was bombed.

Photo: Inside the Amiriya air-raid shelter following the US bombing (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)

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