World

Basra Blasts Kill 40, Wound 200

April 21, 2004 / 6:56 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Near-simultaneous explosions ripped through three police stations in Basra in southern Iraq on Wednesday, killing more than 40 people, including schoolchildren on a passing bus, and wounding 200.

A fourth explosion near the city's police academy occurred about two hours after the initial blasts, but no casualties were immediately reported.

At about the same time in northern Iraq, about 35 Iraqi rebels attacked U.S. Marines in Fallujah, setting off a heavy gunbattle only hours after an intensely negotiated truce had gone into effect.

A Marine officer says there have been U.S. casualties, but doesn't give details. Another officer says he doubts the violence will scuttle the Fallujah agreement, suggesting it was an isolated attack.

In response to the attack, the Marines have halted a key commitment on their side of the deal: allowing civilians who fled earlier fighting to return to Fallujah.

Iraqi security forces, some wearing flak jackets and carrying weapons, had moved back into Fallujah on Tuesday as part of the truce agreement. The accord calls on insurgents to hand in weapons and allows civilians to return.

Marine commanders say so far, no insurgents have come forward to turn in their heavy weapons.

U.S. officials have warned that if guerrillas do not surrender their weapons, Marines are prepared to storm the city - likely sparking a new round of bloody fighting.

In Basra, British military spokesman Squadron leader Jonathan Arnold said the blasts that hit the police stations Wednesday are believed to have been caused by car bombs. However, an Iraqi police colonel said that rocket attacks may have been to blame.

The attacks came a day after Iraqi leaders named a tribunal of judges and prosecutors to try Saddam Hussein, placing a longtime opponent of the ousted dictator in the forefront of the case against him and his former Baathist inner circle.

Iraqi Police Col. Kadhem al-Muhammedawi said about 10 elementary school students in a bus passing by the Saudia police station at the time of the blasts were among the dead.

Cars and at least two school buses were seen destroyed outside the station in the Saudia district of Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. The interior of one of the school buses was burned out, the seats shredded.

The facade of the Saudia station also was heavily damaged and there is a hole six feet deep and nine feet wide in front. Bloodied and badly burned bodies were rushed to the hospital.

More than 40 people were killed and at least 200 injured in the explosions, according to Ali Hussein, an emergency physician at Basra's main hospital. Dozens of bodies filled the morgue and in the hallways of Basra's Educational Hospital, the city's largest.

In London, a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said that no British troops were hurt in the blasts, and that attempts by British forces to help were hampered by protesters.

In other recent developments:

The Dominican Republic, citing security concerns for its 302 soldiers, has decided to withdraw its troops from Iraq within the next few weeks. The announcement came just two days after President Hipolito Mejia pledged to keep the country's troops in Iraq until their one-year commitment ended in August.

Monday, Honduras announced it will withdraw its 370 soldiers. Spain's 1,300 soldiers are on the way out. Albania is pledging it will increase the number of soldiers it is contributing to the coalition effort in Iraq.

Halliburton Co. identified three contract workers whose bodies were found last week near an attack on a fuel convoy in Iraq this month. Halliburton says the workers were Steven Hulet of Michigan, Jack Montague of Illinois, and Jeffrey Parker of Louisiana.

A top Italian official in Iraq said in comments published Tuesday she is very optimistic that three Italian hostages would be released and suggested ransom could resolve the standoff.

Prime Minister John Howard said a new warning that Australians in Iraq are prime kidnapping targets would not force an early withdrawal of Australian forces from the war-ravaged nation, a radio station reported.

Members of Congress grilled U.S. military leaders and Bush administration defense officers about the future of the Iraq war. The hearing Tuesday was the first of five scheduled for administration officials on Capitol Hill this week.

In Baghdad Tuesday, guerrillas fired a barrage of mortar rounds at the city's largest prison, killing 22 prisoners in an attack a U.S. general said may have been an attempt to spark an inmate uprising against American guards. The slain prisoners were all security detainees, meaning they were suspected of belonging to the anti-U.S. insurgency or to Saddam's former regime.

In Mosul Tuesday, a U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb. This is the 100th American combat death in April, the deadliest month since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003. At least 1,100 Iraqis have been killed in fighting since the start of the month, according to an Associated Press count based on reports from hospitals and Iraqi and U.S. officials.

Iraqi leaders Tuesday named a tribunal of judges and prosecutors to try Saddam Hussein, placing a longtime opponent of the ousted dictator in the forefront of the case against him and his former Baathist inner circle.

A senior member of Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress was appointed to head the all-Iraqi tribunal - a potentially controversial choice. Chalabi, a longtime exile who returned to Iraq and was named to the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, is mistrusted as an outsider by many Iraqis who want to see Saddam prosecuted by Iraqis who were present under his brutal rule.

Salem Chalabi, a U.S.-educated lawyer and nephew of Ahmad Chalabi, was named by the Governing Council as director-general of the court.

No date has been set for the trial of Saddam, who was captured by U.S. troops in December and has since been undergoing CIA and FBI interrogation at an undisclosed location in or near Baghdad.

Iraqis - particularly the Shiite Muslim majority repressed by the Baathists - have been eager to try the man who ruled them with an iron fist for decades. Shiites, particularly local leaders with grassroots support, are likely to dominate any elected government and could want to see their own people lead Saddam's prosecution.

The tribunal named Tuesday will not be an international one. However, its Iraqi judges and prosecutors will be trained in international and war crimes law and will study the actions of similar bodies such as the Rwanda war crimes tribunal.