Reaction from around the world:

Iraq

"These innocent civilians are the collateral damage - like the Iraqis in the Ameriyah shelter and the victims of the almost daily bombings, like those in so many disputes: Panama, Vietnam, Grenada, Hiroshima. The price of conflict is fire, blood and human life yet all of them, all of us, are just that - precious human lives. Can this be a turning point? A time to join hands? A halt to carnage which has been going on since the crusades? And let me say that here in Iraq, contrary to reports, we were not smiling. We know loss and pain too well, we are not vengeful, but we were remembering again what happened to us 10 years ago."

Nasra Al Sa'adoon,
an author who lives in Baghdad, IRAQ

COLLATERAL DAMAGE - civilians who have been killed and injured in a military action although they were not the intended targets of the action. The term 'collateral damage' has often been used by the US military as a way of making things sound better than they really are.

In 1991, at the AMERIYAH shelter in Baghdad, a large number of women and children were killed by US bombs.

Large number of ordinary people in PANAMA, in VIETNAM and in GRENADA suffered because the US government used a great deal of military force for its own political purposes.

CARNAGE - a situation where lots of people are killed and wounded

CRUSADES - The Crusades were wars between Christian Europeans and Moslems for control of parts of the Middle East that had religious significance for Christians