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Coverup over missiles hitting police stations { April 21 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9347713%5E12377,00.htmlBasra police chief General Mohammad Kadhem al-Ali said missiles fell on three police stations after a series of three successive explosions which shook the city soon after 7.00am local time (12noon AEDT).
A British military spokesman however said the explosions were believed to have been caused by car bombs outside the police stations, with dead at all three locations. Military officials said it was too early to say if they had been suicide attacks.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9347713%5E12377,00.html
61 dead in rush-hour carnage
From correspondents in Basra
April 21, 2004
AT least 61 people were killed today and dozens were wounded in a series of bomb attacks in British-occupied southern Iraq, a day after a mortar strike on a US-run prison west of Baghdad left 22 inmates dead.
Blasts at three police stations and a police academy in nearby Zubair created carnage in the latest blow to the US-led coalition's attempts to stabilise Iraq in the run-up to the June 30 handover of power to Iraqis.
"There are 55 bodies in the morgue" of Sadr University Hospital in central Basra, an intern said. Another hospital reported four dead and some 25 wounded.
"There are more than 100 people wounded," said the intern, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He added that the death toll might rise as there were many dismembered bodies which were difficult to identify.
The injured included 25 schoolgirls travelling on a school bus at the time of the blasts in central Basra, according to a hospital security guard.
Another two people were killed and six others hurt in an explosion at a police academy in Zubair, south of here, according Issam Hazem Ainajli, a member of Basra's gubernorate council.
Four British soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, in the Zubair attack, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.
Basra police chief General Mohammad Kadhem al-Ali said missiles fell on three police stations after a series of three successive explosions which shook the city soon after 7.00am local time (12noon AEDT).
A British military spokesman however said the explosions were believed to have been caused by car bombs outside the police stations, with dead at all three locations. Military officials said it was too early to say if they had been suicide attacks.
Mohammed Hassim, an Iraqi police officer in Basra, told BBC television: "I was on duty, the British came and I opened the gate for them.
"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."
In Baghdad, a senior military official for the US-led coalition spoke of 22 confirmed deaths - 20 civilians and two Iraqi policemen - in Basra but added that the toll was expected to rise.
Coalition officials had been warning of a spectacular attack in the next couple of weeks by insurgents opposing the occupation of Iraq.
The coalition spokesman added there had been five explosions in Basra, four of which were caused by car bombs. The cause of the fifth blast was not known, the spokesman said.
Television pictures showed the charred wreckage of vehicles including a school bus and a large crater in the ground.
Coalition forces were initially only able to get to the al Ashar police station, because crowds were stoning troops at the other two, said British Squadron Leader Jon Arnold.
Basra, where British forces operate, has been relatively calm compared to other parts of the country where coalition troops have been targeted in some of the worst clashes since the US-led invasion last year.
The Basra bombings followed the deaths of 22 inmates at the US-run Baghdad Confinement Facility at Abu Ghraib some 50 kilometres west of the capital after insurgents fired 12 mortar rounds at the sprawling complex.
The jail, which holds 4,500 people seized during the US-led operation across Iraq since last year, has been the target of repeated attacks.
More than 600 Iraqis were killed, according to hospital sources, and scores of US troops also died during bloody fighting in the worst trouble-spot in Fallujah, west of Baghdad this month.
A soldier was wounded there Wednesday after a gunfight when marines confronted a group of insurgents in the city where an uneasy ceasefire had been holding after a deal was struck Monday to try to bring to an end a two-week siege.
The deal called for a heavy weapons handover by rebels inside the city but the coalition said Wednesday said it had been "limited" and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rated the chances of a negotiated solution to the standoff as "remote".
"Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom," he said in Washington.
In Baghdad, a senior military coalition official said: "We're still willing to complete the fight in Fallujah and may find ourselves having to do that."
Only seven Iraqi families who fled the fierce fighting were allowed to return to the city Wednesday as gunfire was heard. Fifty were allowed to return Tuesday and another 50 had been expected to be allowed in Wednesday.
The continued security problems in the run-up to a return to Iraqi self-rule by July 1 have sparked the first signs of a split within the coalition after Spain announced Sunday that it would withdraw its 1,432 personnel from Iraq.
It prompted further announcements that Honduras will pull out its 368 troops and the Dominican Republic its 300 troops.
The United States has some 135,000 troops in Iraq, backed by 25,000 soldiers from other countries.
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