Iraqi police: 7 killed in US air strike near B'dad

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US aircraft bombed a building where suspected insurgents were hiding north of Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding four, Iraqi police said. The bombing took place late Monday in Beiji, site of Iraq's largest oil refinery, said Iraqi police Capt. Arkan Jassim, who reported the casualty figures. The US military did not comment on the deaths. It said only that an unmanned aircraft spotted three men planting a roadside bomb in the city 155 miles north of Baghdad, and that Navy F-14s bombed a nearby building the three had entered. AP Television News video showed dozens of people gathered Tuesday near the rubble of the building. Men carried several bodies wrapped in carpets from the rubble, chanting, "There is no god but God!" The Beiji refinery stopped production Dec. 18 because tanker truck drivers refused to make deliveries across dangerous desert roads. Iraqi officials said Monday that the refinery resumed supplying Baghdad and other cities after taking security precautions for drivers.