| Human shield buses hit by US planes -Iraq minister |
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BAGHDAD, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes attacked two buses bringing American and European peace activists to Baghdad from neighbouring Jordan, Iraq said on Tuesday. Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told a news conference the injured were being treated in a hospital near the Jordanian border. He gave no more details of casualties. "Yesterday an American warplane attacked two buses on the highway between Amman and Baghdad with foreign passengers, among them Americans," Sahaf said, adding later that Europeans had also been on board. "These were human shields who were coming to Baghdad to be deployed...many of them were injured and taken to hospital at Rutba," he said. "The brave Americans start shooting Americans." Hundreds of Western activists poured into Baghdad before the war to show their support for the Iraqi people in the weeks leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of the country. Some of them set up camp in power stations and water plants around the Iraqi capital in a bid to dissuade U.S. military commanders from targeting the facilities. Others have headed out of the country -- taking buses that shuttle between Baghdad and the Jordanian capital Amman. ((Writing by Crispian Balmer, |