British military commanders were on Wednesday night conducting an urgent investigation to find the perpetrators of a series of devastating suicide car bombs in the southern Iraqi city of Basra and the nearby town of Zubayr, and assess the implications for a region which up to now has been relatively peaceful.
At least 68 people were killed, including 17 children on their way to school. Almost 240 people were injured, including five soldiers from the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
Tony Blair on Wednesday night insisted that he had no plans to send more troops to Iraq despite the worst day for British forces in Iraq since last year’s invasion. He said British troops were coping ”extremely well”.
But the sense that the country was descending into chaos and violence was hard to avoid on Wednesday after suicide bombers blew up four police stations in a series of coordinated blasts.
The bombers, driving identical Chevrolet saloon cars, struck three police stations in the centre of Basra at around 7.15am. An explosion outside al-Saudia police station incinerated two minibuses full of schoolchildren. One contained teenage girls from al-Amjad intermediate school; the other was full of children on their way to kindergarten.
”It was a huge explosion,” 15-year-old Ala’Muhamad, who had been about to board one of the buses, told the Guardian. Crying and shaking, she added: ”I can’t believe all my friends have been killed. I’m the only one left.”
A police officer, Mazin (27) who survived the attack on Basra’s al-Ashar police station, said simply: ”The roof fell in.”
”I saw a minibus full of children on fire,” said Amin Dinar, who was wounded in the blast.
Ten Iraqi policemen were among the dead. More than 100 Iraqi civilians were last night being treated in two hospitals in the city, as people queued to give blood.
Basra’s governor, Wael Abdullatif, blamed al-Qaeda and supporters of Saddam Hussein. He said the Jordanian militant, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, could also have been involved. US officials have linked Zarqawi to suicide bombings in Kerbala and the northern city of Irbil. The attacks might also have been in revenge for the US’s offensive this month in Falluja, in which more than 600 Iraqis died, the governor said.
On Wednesday night Iraqi officials said they were interrogating one suicide bomber who had failed to blow himself up. They were also examining the remains of the cars used in the attacks, which had been packed with 400kg of TNT and metal.
”I accuse al-Qaeda,” Basra’s mayor, Wael Abdul-Hafeez, said.
A senior British defence source said there was no indication that the bombings heralded a ”southern uprising”.
The attacks came during another troubled day in Iraq, which saw fighting erupt again in Falluja and confirmation that a Danish businessman kidnapped 10 days ago was dead. The body of Henrik Frandsen (35) who was kidnapped north of Baghdad, was found.
On Wednesday, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said the suicide attacks would not derail plans to hand sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
In Falluja, west of Baghdad, fighting broke out hours after the 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 US soldiers and the Sunni resistance fighters, according to residents.
On Monday US officials in Baghdad said an agreement had been reached with civic leaders in the city, which would see rebels hand over their heavy weapons. On Wednesday, however, as US snipers pumped rounds into buildings and Black Hawk helicopters attacked with machine guns and cannon, the truce appeared to have collapsed.
Blair said he had no plans to bolster the 8 700 British troops in southern Iraq. But the international community had to help the majority in Iraq to make sure the terrorists did not succeed. – Guardian Unlimited Â