I'll go so far as to venture these 'missile' strikes may well have be DELIBERATE in order to blame the Coalition forces and put them in a bad light politically. After all, if 'suicide bombers' are to become standard warfare why not deliberately inflicted strikes on your own people in order to make political capital out of it?

The one that killed 58 people had the following information on it:

Serial number: 30003-704ASB 7492.

The letter "B" is scratched and could be an "H".

This is followed by a further code which arms manufacturers usually refer to as the weapon's "Lot" number. It reads: MFR 96214 09.

So the US military should be able to say whether it was one of their own. The question is, would they admit it? Or will this be another one of those "babies thrown from incubators" stories?

Anna,

Also being cynical (though coming from the other direction), how do we know the plate (or whatever) containing the serial number & part number came from the munition that exploded in marketplace? The plate could have been a "throwdown" bomb.

the press seem far less aggressive in pursuing this type of civilian event than in previous wars ... is this propaganda fatigue? in my estimation far more civilians are dying in smaller less photogenic incidents ... for that matter more civilians have probably died of tobacco induced lung cancer in Iraq during the same time that this war has been raging.