Papers ponder Baghdad 'carnage'

Papers ponder Baghdad 'carnage'

The pace and range of unfolding events in Iraq has Thursday's papers divided on which war story to put on the front page.

All the press feature the Baghdad marketplace bombing by two American missiles, but the anti-war press make it their lead story with graphic accounts from correspondents.

Robert Fisk, in the Independent, details the horror of the destruction - costing up to 20 civilian lives - wreaked in the busy street.

The paper gives his report maximum impact by enlarging the words, which utter: "It was an outrage, an obscenity.

"The severed hand on the metal door, the swamp of blood and mud across the road, the human brains inside a garage, the incinerated, skeletal remains of an Iraqi mother and her three small children in their still-smouldering car."

Significantly, the paper chooses to diminish the accompanying pictures to give the space to Fisk's description.

The Guardian does the reverse and publishes a large and disturbing picture of a dead Iraq civilian, to accompany the account of the "carnage" by Suzanne Goldenberg.

In an interesting interpretation of the story, the Daily Telegraph columnist John Keegan questions whether the "slow and careful" policy of avoiding civilian casualties may actually cause more Iraqi deaths by, among other things, lengthening the war.

TV 'horror'

The Iraqi television pictures of what are alleged to be British prisoners of war and two dead British soldiers is what sickens the Sun and the Daily Mail.

"Saddam executes our boys", says the Sun on its front page.

"Horror at TV film of shot Britons", echoes the Mail.

While attacking the propaganda tactics of Saddam, both papers champion the humanitarian efforts of the coalition.

The Mail carries a moving full-page picture of a US soldier carrying a wounded Iraqi child.

And there are images in the Sun of food parcels being distributed to joyful Iraqis.

The paper's editorial said: "The news from Iraq is not all grim.

"Yesterday, amid the images of warfare, came pictures that told vividly of the good that the Allies are doing for Iraq."

War 'on track'

The Times leads on the news that 30,000 American troops are being sent to the Gulf.

But inside, it features a generally upbeat assessment of the campaign by General Wesley Clark.

The man who led Nato forces during the Kosovo invasion said: "The operation remains essentially on track."

Bush's 'blood lust'

The lone tabloid voice against the war is the Daily Mirror, which uses a picture of a distraught Baghdad woman, in the aftermath of the bombing, above a smiling George Bush, greeting crowds at a Florida air base.

In a personal attack against the US president, the Mirror's headline reads: "He loves it".

And the paper's editorial attacks what it describes as Mr Bush's "blood lust".

The president's speech is also considered prominently by the Financial Times, which sees it as evidence of Mr Bush adopting a "mantle of leader".

'Miracle marine'

A Royal Marine who survived being shot four times in the head is showing off his helmet's bullet holes on the front of the Star and the Daily Express.

Eric Walderman, 25, said: "The helmet saved my life. I'll never take it off again."

The Mail calls him a "miracle marine", with a picture of a very relieved partner Lindsey and two-year-old son Danny.

Friend or foe

The Camp David summit between Mr Blair and Mr Bush is given a different slant by the Telegraph cartoonist.

The president is determined to topple the enemy.

To which a panicky-looking prime minister answers: "We can't simply bomb Paris."