CHAOS IN IRAQ: 10 of my family were killed by your missiles Mr Blair

AN Iraqi father who lost 10 of his family in a bungled British Army attack last night demanded an apology from Tony Blair.

Hospital consultant Dr Akram Hamoodi's home in Basra was reduced to rubble after Army officers were wrongly told mass murderer Chemical Ali was living next door.

"Mr Blair speaks about the tragedy of the loss of British servicemen, but why no word about our loss?" said Dr Akram last night. "Why are we not worthy of an apology?

"We are grieving too. We were not friends of Saddam. But now I regard both Blair and Bush as murderers." The family have relatives in Britain - and were so pro-British that their teenagers loved England and Western music.

Dr Akram lashed out as America apologised for shooting dead eight Iraqi policemen and injuring six others in a new friendly fire blunder in Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, on Friday.

It was in April that six missiles slammed into Dr Akram's home leaving five of his children dead. His mother and four other relatives also died. At the time, British officials announced they had killed Ali Hass Al-Majid, who masterminded Saddam's chemical weapons programme and gassed thousands of Kurds. It is now known he was not in the house. He stayed on the run until captured by American forces four weeks ago.

To add insult to injury, Dr Akram's family has been refused permission to visit relatives in Britain to share their grief.

Dr Akram, a senior surgeon at Basra's Taalimi Hospital, said: "We are surrounded here by the memory of what has happened. I feel totally empty. I keep wishing I had been killed too. I want to bring my family to Manchester to visit my three brothers. But we have been denied permission.

"Why are they putting us through this extra pain when they've already inflicted so much on us? We are very bitter about it."

After the attack Dr Akram, 48, whose father Abed was a safety officer with BP in Iraq for more than 30 years, frantically dug through the remains of his house with his bare hands to pull out his 16-year-old son Zaid.

But there was nothing he could do for his mother Khariya, 72, daughters Zeinab, 18, and Zina, 12, and sons Zain, 17, and Moustapha, 13. His sister Ihab, 34, brother Wisam, 41, nephews Hassan, seven and Amar, two, and niece Norhudda, six months, also died.

Dr Akram's sister-in-law Karen Hamoodi, 41, said from her home in Eccles, Greater Manchester: "The way this has been handled makes me feel totally ashamed to be British."

Oxford-born Karen, 41, who is married to Dr Akram's brother Sudad, added: "It feels as if our 10 dead family members have been murdered. Mr Blair is giving us no answers, no help, nothing.

"When a British soldier dies they send counsellors and lots of help to the bereaved family. But when British forces are responsible for killing 10 people and many of the family actually are British and live in Britain, they do nothing. Our local MP Ian Stewart has been excellent - but apart from him no one has even phoned us, let alone come round. It's a disgrace."

Karen told how her son Sami, 12, cries himself to sleep at night. "He has all his dead cousins' photos on his wall. We've all visited Iraq and he was very close to them."

Sudad, who flew back to Iraq to help comfort his family as soon as the war ended, said in Basra yesterday: "Part of the tragedy of this is that the family were so pro-British. My niece Zainab loved Western music like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.

"Now I am ashamed to be British. The Government killed so many of our family - and now will do nothing at all for us."

Karen and Sudad's daughter Dina, 13, suffers recurring nightmares about the tragedy. "They are always about a house blowing up or the petrol station opposite our home in Eccles exploding. Always our whole family are trapped inside, and her dad comes to save her," says Karen.

The family still cannot understand how British intelligence got it so wrong.

Dr Akram said: "It would have been obvious that Chemical Ali could not have been using the house next door.

"There was no sign of him, but even if there was, they could have sent in a raiding party to grab him.

"They were only two miles away - and there were no Iraqi soldiers between them and us. They fired six missiles for one target."

Sudad emailed Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon on April 14 to complain about the tragedy.

Almost two months later, on June 4, he got a reply from Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram.

The letter failed to offer an apology. Instead, it acknowledged "your family's suffering" but added: "The Coalition took every care to ensure so far as is possible that military action avoided the risk of injury to civilians. It is a sad truth that the risk to the civil population cannot be eliminated entirely."

A Ministry Of Defence spokesman said last night: "The letter sent by Mr Ingram expressed sincere sympathy to this family."

BLASTED TO DEATH BY BRITISH BOMBS

1. MOTHER

Khariya, 722. BROTHER Wisam, 41

3. SISTER Ihab, 344. DAUGHTER Zainab, 18

5. SON Zain, 176. SON

Moustapha, 13

7. DAUGHTER Zina, 128. NEPHEW

Hassan, 7

9. NIECE Norhudda, 6mth10. NEPHEW

Amar, 3

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