US air strike in Baghdad's Sadr City kills 13-hospitals

BAGHDAD, Aug 8 (Reuters) A US helicopter strike in Baghdad's crowded Shi'ite slum of Sadr City killed 13 people and wounded eight early today, hospital sources said.

Reuters television pictures showed a US attack helicopter circling above bullet-riddled cars and a house that showed damage from shrapnel and fire.

US military officials did not immediately respond to queries about the incident.

An official at Sadr City Hospital said it had received 10 bodies, while an official at Imam Ali Hospital, said it had taken in three bodies.

Police put the death toll at 11 and said it included women and children.

An official in the office of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said US aircraft had attacked Sadr City's Tareq neighbourhood before dawn.

Hundreds of angry mourners chanted as they carried at least three coffins, draped in Iraqi flags, through Sadr City streets.

Family members wept.

Baghdad police imposed a three-day vehicle curfew today morning, ahead of an annual pilgrimage to a north Baghdad Shi'ite shrine. Almost 1,000 people were killed two years ago during the pilgrimage in a stampede.

REUTERS GT RN1517