Basra death toll rises to 55
At least 55 people were killed today and 238 injured – including four British soldiers – after a series of explosions in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Ten primary school pupils in a bus were among the dead.
Near-simultaneous suspected car bombs ripped through three police stations at rush-hour this morning in the British-controlled city, with a fourth blast two hours later at a police academy.
Forty-five people were killed in the police station blasts and 10 were killed in the police academy explosions, witnesses said.
The injured included four British soldiers at the police academy in the suburb of Al Zubayr, Major Hisham al-Halawi, spokesman for British forces in Basra, said.
More than 40 dead and 200 injured from the blast were taken to Basra’s Educational Hospital, the city’s largest, said Ali Hussein, an emergency doctor at the facility.
Dozens of bodies could be seen in the morgue and in the hallways of the hospital.
Another five dead and 36 injured were evacuated to a second hospital, Basra General Hospital, officials said.
“We don’t know yet who committed these bombings,” Maj al-Halawi said.
The rush-hour attacks, at 7.30am local time (4.30am Irish time), were described as a “worrying” and tragic development in an area which has so far remained largely calm in spite of fierce fighting in other parts of the country.
Two school buses passing by a police station in Saudia district were destroyed, one of which appeared to have been packed with children.
A police colonel confirmed 10 primary school pupils in one of the buses were among the dead.
He said the attacks may have been caused by rockets.
Cars outside the police station were charred. The interior of one of the school buses was burned out, the seats shredded.
The explosion left a hole two yards deep and three yards wide in front of the Saudia station.
British forces were trying to help at the scene of the police station explosions but their efforts were being hampered by protesters, the MoD spokeswoman said.
She added: “Basra has been mainly calm, certainly whilst the trouble has been going on in Fallujah. It is worrying.”
Police Major Ouda al-Jabiri, at Saudia, said the cause of the blasts was not immediately known.
British military spokesman Squadron Leader Jonathan Arnold said the blasts were believed to have been caused by car bombs and there were a number of Iraqi dead, including police.
