Suicide attackers detonated simultaneous car bombs against police buildings during the morning rush hour in Basra yesterday, killing at least 68 people, including schoolchildren, in the bloodiest attacks to hit this mainly Shiite city since the US-led occupation began a year ago.
Iraqis pulled charred and torn bodies from mangled vehicles in front of the Saudia police station, located by Basra's crowded main street market -- one of three stations and a police academy hit just after 7am by a total of five car bombs, each with a suicide attacker inside, according to Basra's governor.
Two vans were shredded as they passed by the Saudia station -- one carried kindergartners, the other was taking girls to middle school. Dead children, burned beyond recognition, were taken to hospital morgues. Some 200 people were wounded, officials said.
PHOTO: AP
Iraqi Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi blamed terrorists. He said the Basra attack resembled suicide bombings earlier this year against Shiites and Kurds that were blamed on foreign Islamic militants.
"The information we have indicate that the attacks were carried out with car bombs," al-Sumeidi said. "As for who is behind the Basra attacks, it is clear that the fingerprints of the parties that were behind the massacres in Iraq as in Irbil and Karbala can be seen in today's attacks."
US officials have pointed to al-Qaeda linked Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the March 2 suicide bombings at Shiite shrines in Karbala and Baghdad that killed at least 181. Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group based in the north, is suspected in the Feb. 1 bombings in Irbil that left 109 dead.
Al-Zarqawi has outlined a plot to attack Shiite religious sites to foment civil war between Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni minority, say US officials, pointing to a letter from al-Zarqawi to al-Qaeda leaders that the military says it intercepted earlier this year.
Basra's Governor Wael Abdul-Latif said up to 16 children and nine policemen were among the 68 dead, though other officials gave lower numbers of children. Basra Police Commander Mohammed Kadhim al-Ali said the cars were packed with missiles and TNT.
The bombings brought yet another front of violence as US forces are locked in a standoff with a radical Shiite cleric in the holy city of Najaf and Sunni insurgents in the central city of Fallujah.
Meanwhile, an agreement aimed at bringing peace to Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, met troubles only a day after its implementation began.
A heavy battle broke out yesterday morning on the city's north side, where up to 40 insurgents attacked Marine positions, commanders said. Nine insurgents were killed and three Marines were wounded, a Marine spokesman said, though some Marines in the field said 36 fighters were killed.
As of noon, no guerrillas had turned in any heavy weapons, the most crucial tenet of the agreement in US eyes, said Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Brennan Byrne. The US military has warned it may resume its assault on Fallujah if the agreement falls through.
For now, the Marines were responding by halting a part of the agreement of great concern to the Fallujans, the return of families that fled during the fighting since April 5, Byrne said.
Yesterday's explosions tore into three police stations in Basra and the academy in the suburb of Zubair nearly simultaneously after 7am, as many residents were headed to markets, jobs or school. An hour later, another blast hit the same police academy.
Abdul-Latif, who is also a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said 200 were wounded, including 36 policemen. Some 168 of the wounded were in critical condition. Four British soldiers were injured in the police academy blasts, two of them seriously, the British Ministry of Defence said in London.
But casualty figures were unclear amid the chaos. Iraqi Police Colonel Kadhem al-Muhammedawi said 10 children were among the dead, while al-Sumeidi said there were five children killed. Al-Sumeidi said there were 100 people injured, including 28 children.
"Today, we all have lost children who are part of Iraq's future which the terrorists want to destroy. The Iraqi government condemns this criminal act and it confirms its resolution on defeating this cancer which is called resistance," al-Sumeidi said.
A large crater, 2m-deep and 3m-wide, was blown in the pavement outside the Saudia station, the facade of which was heavily damaged.
British troops who tried to come to the Saudia station to help were met by angry Iraqis, blaming the British for failing to keep security in the city.
Yesterday's battle on Fallujah's north side lasted for four hours, with Cobra helicopter gunships blasting with Gatling guns from the air. Witnesses reported tanks moving into the Jolan area where Marines said the attack was launched.
The city then returned to the calm it has seen over the past few days as weekend negotiations were held between US officials and Fallujah representatives, producing Monday's agreement.
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