The U.S. military apologized Sat-urday for the shooting that killed nine people—eight Iraqis and one Jordanian—and badly damaged ahospital in the central Iraqi city of Fallujah, but did not defuse the anger washing over the city of 200,000.

　　The shooting was the worst case of friendly fire since U.S. President George W. Bush announced major operations in Iraq over on May 1,and it served to intensify talk of the "heavy-handedness" of American troops.