Confusion over reports of 18 Iraqi boys killed by car bomb
Iraqi state television reported yesterday that 18 boys were killed when a car bomb exploded in a park in Ramadi, but key details of the report have been questioned.
Iraqi police and state TV said the attack occurred yesterday; later, police said it happened on Monday.
Confusion grew deeper following an announcement by US forces that 30 civilians and one Iraqi soldier were injured by flying debris yesterday when troops intentionally detonated 15 bags of explosives found in Ramadi.
Some of the wounded were treated at a US aid station, and others were flown to a military hospital for treatment, the statement said. None of the injuries was life-threatening, it added.
The news first broke after nightfall when it was too dangerous for local journalists to check the reports independently in Ramadi, a Sunni insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad.
Western reporters normally tour the area only as part of military patrols. Much of Ramadi is under effective insurgent control, and even the police have difficulty establishing the facts in bombings and assassinations.
Meanwhile, reports that the boys were killed touched off a flurry of condemnation.
Unicef, the UN’s children’s agency, issued a statement saying “the loss of so many innocent children at play is unacceptable”.
“Iraq’s recreational areas, as well as its schools, must be respected and protected as safe havens where children can play and learn without fear,” said Roger Wright, the Unicef representative for Iraq.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s office issued a statement denouncing the 18 deaths and calling on Iraqi security forces to “chase and punish the criminals”.
Another statement from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s office called the boys’ deaths “a brutal act” that “reveals the ugly face” of terrorists. The prime minister’s statement described the attack as coming yesterday.
But an official in Mr Maliki’s office said they based the date on the Iraqi TV report.
