68 dead in southern Iraq attacks

BASRA – Suicide bombers killed at least 68 people, some of them children, in co-ordinated strikes on four police stations that inflicted bloody chaos on Iraq’s southern city of Basra yesterday, officials said.

Basra mayor Wael Abdul-Hafeez accused Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network of being behind the morning rush-hour blasts. Near-simultaneous explosions hit three police stations in Basra and one in the town of Zubair, 25 km south of the mainly Shi’ite city, the British military said.”All four attacks seem to have been carried out by suicide bombers,” said a British Defence Ministry spokeswoman in Basra.Hafeez told a news conference 68 people, not including the bombers, had been killed and 99 wounded.Among the dead were children going to school in a minibus that was incinerated in one of the car bombings.Iraq’s Coalition Provisional Authority, which in Basra is British-led, vowed to pursue those behind “these despicable attacks” and urged Iraqis to “isolate those who use violence to try to disrupt the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty”.The US-led occupation is due to end on June 30 with the formal transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.A wounded Iraqi, Amin Dinar, said he had heard a huge explosion as he stood at the door of his house.”I looked around and saw my leg bleeding and my neighbour lying dead on the floor, torn apart,” he said from his hospital bed.”I saw a minibus full of children on fire.”The mayor, speaking at Basra police headquarters, said police had recovered the remains of one bearded bomber.”I accuse al Qaeda,” the mayor said.”We have arrested a person disguised in a police uniform.We are questioning him.”US officials have blamed al Qaeda or its affiliates for some of the violence sweeping Iraq.Interior Minister Samir Sumaidy said the Basra attacks were similar to devastating suicide attacks in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala and the Kurdish capital Arbil earlier this year.But he told a news conference it was too early to assign blame.Witnesses at hospitals said 200 civilians and police had been wounded.Reuters counted 55 bodies at one hospital.A morgue attendant said 39 bodies had been identified and at least 16 others were burnt beyond recognition.A British military spokesman said three vehicles had exploded at Basra police stations at about 07h15.British officials said the Zubair blast killed three Iraqis and wounded four British soldiers, two seriously.The explosions sowed panic across Basra, which had been relatively peaceful during this month’s surge of violence in other parts of central and southern Iraq.Josh Mandel, at Control Risks Group, a security firm based in London, said the attacks did not necessarily mean guerrilla activity was about to engulf previously calm areas.”The guys who are carrying out these major vehicle bomb attacks have shown they are able to penetrate into pretty much any part of the country and carry out large-scale coordinated attacks,” Mandel said.In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, fighting violated a fragile truce just hours after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested the ceasefire in the Sunni city would not last.Six civilians were killed and 10 wounded in clashes between Marines and rebels that erupted at dawn, residents said.”Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom,” Rumsfeld said on Tuesday.Dozens of families who had fled earlier fighting queued on the edge of Fallujah yesterday waiting to be allowed home.The truce deal stipulates that 50 families may return each day.- Nampa-ReutersNear-simultaneous explosions hit three police stations in Basra and one in the town of Zubair, 25 km south of the mainly Shi’ite city, the British military said.”All four attacks seem to have been carried out by suicide bombers,” said a British Defence Ministry spokeswoman in Basra.Hafeez told a news conference 68 people, not including the bombers, had been killed and 99 wounded.Among the dead were children going to school in a minibus that was incinerated in one of the car bombings.Iraq’s Coalition Provisional Authority, which in Basra is British-led, vowed to pursue those behind “these despicable attacks” and urged Iraqis to “isolate those who use violence to try to disrupt the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty”.The US-led occupation is due to end on June 30 with the formal transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.A wounded Iraqi, Amin Dinar, said he had heard a huge explosion as he stood at the door of his house.”I looked around and saw my leg bleeding and my neighbour lying dead on the floor, torn apart,” he said from his hospital bed.”I saw a minibus full of children on fire.”The mayor, speaking at Basra police headquarters, said police had recovered the remains of one bearded bomber.”I accuse al Qaeda,” the mayor said.”We have arrested a person disguised in a police uniform.We are questioning him.”US officials have blamed al Qaeda or its affiliates for some of the violence sweeping Iraq.Interior Minister Samir Sumaidy said the Basra attacks were similar to devastating suicide attacks in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala and the Kurdish capital Arbil earlier this year.But he told a news conference it was too early to assign blame.Witnesses at hospitals said 200 civilians and police had been wounded.Reuters counted 55 bodies at one hospital.A morgue attendant said 39 bodies had been identified and at least 16 others were burnt beyond recognition.A British military spokesman said three vehicles had exploded at Basra police stations at about 07h15.British officials said the Zubair blast killed three Iraqis and wounded four British soldiers, two seriously.The explosions sowed panic across Basra, which had been relatively peaceful during this month’s surge of violence in other parts of central and southern Iraq.Josh Mandel, at Control Risks Group, a security firm based in London, said the attacks did not necessarily mean guerrilla activity was about to engulf previously calm areas.”The guys who are carrying out these major vehicle bomb attacks have shown they are able to penetrate into pretty much any part of the country and carry out large-scale coordinated attacks,” Mandel said.In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, fighting violated a fragile truce just hours after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested the ceasefire in the Sunni city would not last.Six civilians were killed and 10 wounded in clashes between Marines and rebels that erupted at dawn, residents said.”Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom,” Rumsfeld said on Tuesday.Dozens of families who had fled earlier fighting queued on the edge of Fallujah yesterday waiting to be allowed home.The truce deal stipulates that 50 families may return each day.- Nampa-Reuters