BAGHDAD, Dec. 10 -- The International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday expressed concern about civilians in Fallujah, and said since a U.S. assault last month, sewage was flowing in the streets and hundreds of bodies apparently lay in a warehouse.
The Swiss-based humanitarian group will provide tools and equipment to carry out basic repairs on damaged water treatment facilities and the sewage system, said Florian Westphal, a Red Cross spokesman.
A team of seven Red Cross Iraqi staff members, including engineers, entered Fallujah on Tuesday for the first time since the assault by more than 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops, which began on Nov. 8.
"Our team was told by the U.S. Army that there are several hundred dead bodies in a warehouse in the city," Westphal said, adding that the Red Cross team was unable to see the site, later described as a cold-storage facility.
In other developments Friday, a U.S. soldier pleaded guilty at a court-martial in Baghdad to the murder of a badly wounded Iraqi, the military said in a statement.
The soldier is Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne, 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C. Military officials had described the incident as a "mercy killing" that took place after U.S. soldiers had opened fire on a garbage truck they suspected of being used by insurgent bombers.
Also, a helicopter accident at an air base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed two U.S. soldiers and injured four, the military said. The accident was under investigation and the cause had not been determined, an official said.
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