XASA
04-21-2004, 03:47 PM
Twenty-three children were brutally murdered by terrorists today. In the past, they have also blown up innocent men, women and children, and bombed mosques. Why haven't the anti-American posters who are so quick to decry accidental collateral damage by the coalition not condemning such heinous acts? Reeks of hypocrisy, doesn't it :(
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April 21, 2004
One of the Rush-Hour Blasts Hit a School Bus Full of Children
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 21 — Three car bombs exploded in front of Iraqi police stations in the southern city of Basra this morning, killing 68 people and wounding 98, the governor of Basra said. The deaths included 23 schoolchildren and 9 police officers.
The governor, Waei Abdul Latif, said he believed the attacks were the work of an alliance between Al Qaeda and extremists in Iraq. He said that the attacks had been simultaneous.
"The attacks have the hallmark of Al Qaeda," he told reporters in Basra, adding that he expected more violence as the June 30 date for the return of sovereignty to Iraqis nears.
In Falluja, United States marines were locked in heavy fighting, using helicopters and tanks, even as insurgents began to hand over weapons today as part of a deal that American officials and civic leaders hoped would lead to an end to the violent confrontation there. But skeptical American troops who inspected the weapons said the armaments were mostly old and did not reflect a true intention to fully disarm.
The Iraqi interior minister, Samir Sumaitey, condemned the Basra killings at a news conference in Baghdad.
"The terrorists want to lead Iraq down the path of darkness and chaos," he said. "The Iraqi government condemns this and is determined to find these people and bring them to justice and bring an end to this cancer that is invading the body of Iraq.
"Every child that has been lost represents the future of Iraq."
A fourth explosion today hit a police station in the nearby town of Zubeir, according to a witness in one of Basra's main hospitals, who was speaking to medics as they brought in people wounded in the blast.
One of the explosions in Basra today hit a school bus during the morning rush hour, according to Iraqi witnesses. Traffic was heavy around the police stations, situated in the center of the city.
Bodies of schoolchildren were burning inside the bus, witnesses said. Iraqis helped pick up bodies as ambulances rushed to the scene. Burned corpses were brought to the city's hospitals.
Hisham Halawa, a spokesman for British forces in Basra, said on the Arab satellite television channel Al Jazeera that British forces were unable to reach at least two of the police stations. Al Jazeera, quoting its reporter in the city, said angry Iraqis had pelted the British forces with rocks.
Iraqi police stations have frequently been struck by attackers who see them as allied with American-led occupation forces.
Officer Halawa said that some Iraqi forces were among the wounded, but that most of the victims were civilians.
Al Jazeera broadcast pictures of a charred corpse being loaded onto a pickup truck and of the smoldering skeleton of the school bus. Iraqi women shrieked and wailed at the scene.
The weapons handover in Falluja took place at a mosque there. An Iraqi policeman, Mohammad Khalaf, said that mujahadeen fighters pulled up to the building throughout the day and unloaded a hodgepodge of weapons from their car. The weapons were loaded into a small Mitsubishi pickup truck, and the truck was driven through an American checkpoint to a camp on the edge of the city.
"These guys listen to the clerics," Lieutenant Khalaf said.
At the American checkpoint, Iraqi police and civil defense units arranged the weapons in the sand to be counted. There were homemade rockets, surface-to-air missile launchers, machine guns, mortars and a roadside bomb made out of a car's shock absorber. Many of the weapons were damaged or rusty.
American marines on the scene muttered about the haul.
"This is one of these tests to see how stupid we are," one said, as the Iraqis unloaded the truck.
"This is an insult," said another.
"It's not serviceable stuff," said a third. "It's junk. It's rusty. This is not frontline stuff."
Capt. Paul Cushman sounded a more charitable tone as he surveyed the weapons, the first haul of what the Americans hope will be many more. "We have quite an eclectic collection of ordnance," he said. "They are trying, but they have got a long way to go."
The handover of heavy weapons is a cornerstone of an agreement between American officials and Fallujan civic leaders to try to end the the most serious fighting of the American-led military occupation. American troops have surrounded the town, but American authorities said they would not resume their offensive if the guerrillas turned in their weapons.
More hauls were expected on Thursday.
"This is probably not even a drop in the ocean in Falluja," Captain Cushman said. "But it is a start. Whether it is an honest step to peace, I do not know."
Meanwhile, inside the city of Falluja, the Iraqi police said clashes had erupted between American forces and Iraqi insurgents, killing six civilians. An American soldier at a checkpoint on the edge of the city said, "So much for the cease-fire."
The attacks in Basra came a day after insurgents fired 12 mortar rounds into the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, striking a camp in the sprawling interior where many of the 7,600 Iraqi political detainees are being held by the Americans. United States military officials said that 22 prisoners had been killed and 92 had been wounded.
The attack was part of a pattern of insurgent attacks on the prison, west of Baghdad. The attack sent American officials scurrying for explanations. One theory was that insurgents were seeking to create chaos to help other detainees escape. Another possibility was that the attackers were seeking to undermine Iraqis' already shaky confidence in the occupation authority's ability to maintain control.
That confidence has plunged after a month of turmoil, first in fighting at the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, in Baghdad, then in the uprising led by a militant Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, across a swath of central and southern Iraq. Many Iraqis, and even some American officials, have wondered at the worst moments whether the troops here would lose control.
American officials acknowledge that the situation remains volatile, dependent in large part on what happens in Falluja, 35 miles west of Baghdad, and in Kufa and Najaf, adjacent cities along the Euphrates where Mr. Sadr has made his stand.
In Falluja, events on Tuesday pointed to an American effort to begin putting into effect a deal reached on Monday between civic leaders, senior American officials and Marine commanders. As a first step toward a permanent cease-fire, 50 families who had fled were allowed to return.
Today, American military officials outside Falluja said that they had allowed a lot of families to return to the city but called a halt because of the fighting. Ambulances were seen going into the city, as was an aid convoy.
An Iraqi family consisting of a mother, three children and the mother's grandfather pulled up to the checkpoint in a pickup truck after having spent 12 days outside the town in an area called Zuba, where the family had taken refuge. The grandfather, Fadil Shamri, said, "We heard about a cease-fire and we are trying to get back home, but our house is in the Shuhada district." American soldiers said the fighting had taken place in Shuhada.
Iraqi civil defense officials were in a camp at the edge of the city getting ready to deploy inside, which is one of the points agreed upon in a deal intended to end the fighting. "By the end of today, 400 to 500 will get passes to go in," said Capt. Steve Poast, a Marine official at the camp.
Hopes that Falluja could become a model of "a city that understands what democracy is," as Dan Senor, a spokesman for the American-led administration said at a briefing, remained slim.
The American goal, defined in the Monday agreement, is complete disarmament by Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters in Falluja.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/international/middleeast/21CND-IRAQ.html?hp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 21, 2004
One of the Rush-Hour Blasts Hit a School Bus Full of Children
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 21 — Three car bombs exploded in front of Iraqi police stations in the southern city of Basra this morning, killing 68 people and wounding 98, the governor of Basra said. The deaths included 23 schoolchildren and 9 police officers.
The governor, Waei Abdul Latif, said he believed the attacks were the work of an alliance between Al Qaeda and extremists in Iraq. He said that the attacks had been simultaneous.
"The attacks have the hallmark of Al Qaeda," he told reporters in Basra, adding that he expected more violence as the June 30 date for the return of sovereignty to Iraqis nears.
In Falluja, United States marines were locked in heavy fighting, using helicopters and tanks, even as insurgents began to hand over weapons today as part of a deal that American officials and civic leaders hoped would lead to an end to the violent confrontation there. But skeptical American troops who inspected the weapons said the armaments were mostly old and did not reflect a true intention to fully disarm.
The Iraqi interior minister, Samir Sumaitey, condemned the Basra killings at a news conference in Baghdad.
"The terrorists want to lead Iraq down the path of darkness and chaos," he said. "The Iraqi government condemns this and is determined to find these people and bring them to justice and bring an end to this cancer that is invading the body of Iraq.
"Every child that has been lost represents the future of Iraq."
A fourth explosion today hit a police station in the nearby town of Zubeir, according to a witness in one of Basra's main hospitals, who was speaking to medics as they brought in people wounded in the blast.
One of the explosions in Basra today hit a school bus during the morning rush hour, according to Iraqi witnesses. Traffic was heavy around the police stations, situated in the center of the city.
Bodies of schoolchildren were burning inside the bus, witnesses said. Iraqis helped pick up bodies as ambulances rushed to the scene. Burned corpses were brought to the city's hospitals.
Hisham Halawa, a spokesman for British forces in Basra, said on the Arab satellite television channel Al Jazeera that British forces were unable to reach at least two of the police stations. Al Jazeera, quoting its reporter in the city, said angry Iraqis had pelted the British forces with rocks.
Iraqi police stations have frequently been struck by attackers who see them as allied with American-led occupation forces.
Officer Halawa said that some Iraqi forces were among the wounded, but that most of the victims were civilians.
Al Jazeera broadcast pictures of a charred corpse being loaded onto a pickup truck and of the smoldering skeleton of the school bus. Iraqi women shrieked and wailed at the scene.
The weapons handover in Falluja took place at a mosque there. An Iraqi policeman, Mohammad Khalaf, said that mujahadeen fighters pulled up to the building throughout the day and unloaded a hodgepodge of weapons from their car. The weapons were loaded into a small Mitsubishi pickup truck, and the truck was driven through an American checkpoint to a camp on the edge of the city.
"These guys listen to the clerics," Lieutenant Khalaf said.
At the American checkpoint, Iraqi police and civil defense units arranged the weapons in the sand to be counted. There were homemade rockets, surface-to-air missile launchers, machine guns, mortars and a roadside bomb made out of a car's shock absorber. Many of the weapons were damaged or rusty.
American marines on the scene muttered about the haul.
"This is one of these tests to see how stupid we are," one said, as the Iraqis unloaded the truck.
"This is an insult," said another.
"It's not serviceable stuff," said a third. "It's junk. It's rusty. This is not frontline stuff."
Capt. Paul Cushman sounded a more charitable tone as he surveyed the weapons, the first haul of what the Americans hope will be many more. "We have quite an eclectic collection of ordnance," he said. "They are trying, but they have got a long way to go."
The handover of heavy weapons is a cornerstone of an agreement between American officials and Fallujan civic leaders to try to end the the most serious fighting of the American-led military occupation. American troops have surrounded the town, but American authorities said they would not resume their offensive if the guerrillas turned in their weapons.
More hauls were expected on Thursday.
"This is probably not even a drop in the ocean in Falluja," Captain Cushman said. "But it is a start. Whether it is an honest step to peace, I do not know."
Meanwhile, inside the city of Falluja, the Iraqi police said clashes had erupted between American forces and Iraqi insurgents, killing six civilians. An American soldier at a checkpoint on the edge of the city said, "So much for the cease-fire."
The attacks in Basra came a day after insurgents fired 12 mortar rounds into the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, striking a camp in the sprawling interior where many of the 7,600 Iraqi political detainees are being held by the Americans. United States military officials said that 22 prisoners had been killed and 92 had been wounded.
The attack was part of a pattern of insurgent attacks on the prison, west of Baghdad. The attack sent American officials scurrying for explanations. One theory was that insurgents were seeking to create chaos to help other detainees escape. Another possibility was that the attackers were seeking to undermine Iraqis' already shaky confidence in the occupation authority's ability to maintain control.
That confidence has plunged after a month of turmoil, first in fighting at the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, in Baghdad, then in the uprising led by a militant Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, across a swath of central and southern Iraq. Many Iraqis, and even some American officials, have wondered at the worst moments whether the troops here would lose control.
American officials acknowledge that the situation remains volatile, dependent in large part on what happens in Falluja, 35 miles west of Baghdad, and in Kufa and Najaf, adjacent cities along the Euphrates where Mr. Sadr has made his stand.
In Falluja, events on Tuesday pointed to an American effort to begin putting into effect a deal reached on Monday between civic leaders, senior American officials and Marine commanders. As a first step toward a permanent cease-fire, 50 families who had fled were allowed to return.
Today, American military officials outside Falluja said that they had allowed a lot of families to return to the city but called a halt because of the fighting. Ambulances were seen going into the city, as was an aid convoy.
An Iraqi family consisting of a mother, three children and the mother's grandfather pulled up to the checkpoint in a pickup truck after having spent 12 days outside the town in an area called Zuba, where the family had taken refuge. The grandfather, Fadil Shamri, said, "We heard about a cease-fire and we are trying to get back home, but our house is in the Shuhada district." American soldiers said the fighting had taken place in Shuhada.
Iraqi civil defense officials were in a camp at the edge of the city getting ready to deploy inside, which is one of the points agreed upon in a deal intended to end the fighting. "By the end of today, 400 to 500 will get passes to go in," said Capt. Steve Poast, a Marine official at the camp.
Hopes that Falluja could become a model of "a city that understands what democracy is," as Dan Senor, a spokesman for the American-led administration said at a briefing, remained slim.
The American goal, defined in the Monday agreement, is complete disarmament by Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters in Falluja.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/international/middleeast/21CND-IRAQ.html?hp