Sam Dagher
Terror Takes Terrible Toll
Thu Apr 22, 2004 14:46
4.226.99.116

Terror takes terrible toll on innocents

By SAM DAGHER in Basra

April 23, 2004

ONLY five girls aboard a school bus carrying 18 children survived the bombings that rocked Iraq's biggest Shi'ite city.
[ http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030303-israel-sideline01.htm ]

The strikes by five suicide bombers on rush-hour crowds killed 73 people and wounded at least 100 others.[ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/09/1070732213595.html?from=storyrhs ]

Shreds of biology, chemistry and history textbooks were scattered around the mangled and burned bus carrying the girls to school in Basra.[ http://www.rense.com/general51/addad.htm ]


The bus drove by a car bomb placed in front of a police station in Basra's Braiha neighbourhood.


The blasts ripped apart three Iraqi police stations – their intended targets


Two hours later two blasts at a police academy in nearby Zubeir killed three Iraqi policemen. At least 14 other people were wounded, including five British soldiers.


Parents in the middle-class area said they had recently hired a bus because they were scared their girls would be kidnapped if they walked to school.


The massacre came as US forces battled insurgents in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah.[ http://joevialls.altermedia.info/fortress2.html ]


Back in the US, President George W. Bush is facing mounting opposition to the Iraqi occupation ahead of the June 30 handover to an interim Iraqi government.


The top US general also warned the US may be forced to send extra troops to Iraq.


"At least 68 people are known dead, with 20 of those children" in the blasts in Basra and Zubair, a spokeswoman for the US-led coalition said.



Basra Governor Wael Abdel Latif said the attacks had the "hallmark" of al-Qaeda.


US officials have warned al-Qaeda may attempt to provoke conflict between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims ahead of the handover of sovereignty.


Meanwhile a mortar attack on a prison near Baghdad on Tuesday killed 22 inmates.


In Fallujah, 17 Iraqis died and three US Marines were wounded in renewed clashes.


Fighting in Fallujah has left more than 600 Iraqis dead this month, according to local hospital sources.


The hostage crisis mounted yesterday when a Danish businessman kidnapped in Iraq last week was found dead.


The un-named man was captured while travelling on a road near a village outside Baghdad. Denmark has 500 troops in Basra.


In Washington, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted the situation in Iraq had become serious and more US forces might have to be sent.


The US has already extended the tour of duty for 20,000 troops to counter the insurgents.