US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter - a podcast by BBC World Service

from 2021-02-13T14:08

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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. Also in this week's programme, a drug scandal from the 1970s which blighted the lives of generations, rare archive of the celebrated British artist, Francis Bacon, the 1980s New York Street News newspaper set up to help the homeless and we hear from a nurse from West Africa who devoted her life to the British health service.

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

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