At least 68 people were killed and about 100 wounded in a series of five attacks on Wednesday against police forces in the southern, British-occupied port city of Basra in Iraq and nearby Zubair.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson in London said there had been three explosions in the centre of Basra, plus a fourth targeting what she called a ”detention centre” outside the city.
”So far, there have been many Iraqi causalties, though I don’t have a figure,” she said, adding: ”There are no coalition casualties as far as I know.”
Local officials in Basra said at least 68 people were killed and about 100 wounded in attacks on three police stations in Basra and a police academy in the nearby town of Zubair.
Mohammed Hassim, an Iraqi police officer in Basra, told BBC television that he was nearby when the bombs exploded.
”I was on duty, the British came and I opened the gate for them.” he said.
”Once the British were inside and the post was open, a missile hit the main doors. I started to run. I ran away and so did the British.”
It was not certain if the police academy was the same as the one that British Prime Minister Tony Blair inspected in Zubair when he paid a snap visit on January 4 to visit British troops who control southern Iraq.
Reporters who travelled with Blair were told that the site — a compact, dusty complex of single-storey buildings — had been a detention centre during Saddam Hussein’s regime.
At the time, the academy had 140 recruits who had previously served as policemen in Saddam’s regime, getting instruction from by British and Italian police officers. _ Sapa-AFP