C.N.N. pictures

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday March 31, 2003 11:30 by Sligoman

Market 'bombing'

Was it a stray rocket from either side or was it a bomb dropped from the sky?

News reports show Iraqi people carrying the remains of what blew up in the market killing 58 odd civilians, pictures shows the tail fins of what look like a large BOMB! now I am no expert but wouldn't a rocket (whether coalition or Iraqi) have an exhaust at its tail end out of which the rocket which propels it fires? well in the pictures the tail end is sealed and looks very much like a bomb to me, a bomb with stabilising fins is usually dropped from the sky where at the moment only U.S. and U.K. planes fly. Has anyone else noticed this, I saw these pictures on C.N.N. a large group of people protesting, two or three middle aged men carrying the tail section of a grey bomb. I don't particularly believe either side's propaganda but I sometimes believe my eyes... other questions: the pilots dropping these bombs can, I presume, see what they are dropping them on, and if they can't should they be dropping them in the first place? have the pilots itchy trigger fingers like the ones willing to shoot at clearly marked friendly forces? or are they actively targetting civilians in order to break their will to fight in a popular guerilla war ??? one wonders