US: 'We didn't do it'

American high command today claimed an Iraqi missile could have caused the devastation in a Baghdad market which killed 17 civilians. And one of its most senior officers said US forces' bombs and missiles had "hit their targets" - effectively denying there was any American involvement in the attack.

Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks claimed it was "entirely possible" Iraq inflicted the attack on its own people. "Our systems hit their target, we are sure of that," he said. "We think it is entirely possible this may have been an Iraqi missile that went up and came down, or given the behaviours of the regime lately it may have been deliberately targeted."

American forces have now suffered 24 hours of confusion over the incident, first coming close to admitting they were responsible before saying they did not know.

But today in the Al Shaab neighbourhood, on the northern outskirts of Baghdad, the true cost of the attack was being counted: families counting the dead, injured and missing, while others were facing the loss of their homes and their livelihoods.

Yesterday's carnage left residents bewildered and bitter. The death toll had stood at 15 - but today at the Al Kindi hospital, where several of the seriously injured were taken for specialist treatment, two more people died.

In Al Shaab, most people affected by yesterday's explosions do not want to hear the many emerging versions of who did what and why. "We all believe it was an American plane, we heard it in the sky above us," said Saeed Hammoudi, a 40-year-old trader who was inside one of two rows of shops when the explosions struck.

"Today they want to say they didn't do it? Today they want to say they were attacking a missile or radar site? We don't want to hear what they want to say now - we don't want to hear they are sorry. We just want to get on with our lives."

Whatever coalition military chiefs say, everyone reporters have spoken to in Al Shaab believes emphatically it was a deliberate attack on civilians. The battle for the hearts and minds of people in this area, home to mainly non-Iraqi Arabs - Palestinians and Egyptian immigrants - has long been lost.

So deeply entrenched is the distrust of US and British reasons for entering the war - along with barely-concealed hatred towards them - that any words from Washington and London are immediately disbelieved. They just reinforce Saddam Hussein's position in his own country.

In Al Shaab, a grimy, workingclass area of two-storey buildings, quality of life is low. Infant mortality is among the highest in Iraq.

There are unmade streets and open sewers. The shops that were hit - selling small electrical goods and plumbing and second-hand car parts - were in premises the size of a house garage in Britain.

Many shopkeepers and their families live in the shops. Several have cars, considered precious: today 17 were smouldering heaps. "With my car I could drive to another place in the city to buy goods to sell," said Salah Youssef. "Now it is gone and I will not be able to."

Some families have still not found relatives. Initially, everyone injured was taken to the nearby Al Shaab hospital but it was soon overrun and patients were moved to one of Baghdad's five major hospitals.

Meanwhile, more than 30 explosions rocked Baghdad overnight and early today as it was pounded again by allied warplanes.