- BASRA, Iraq (AFP) -- At
least 61 people were killed and dozens of others, including four British
soldiers, wounded in attacks on three Basra police stations and a police
academy in nearby Zubair, local city and hospital officials said.
-
- "There are 55 bodies in the morgue" of Sadr
University Hospital in central Basra, an intern told AFP, updating a previous
official toll of 44 dead. Another hospital reported four dead and with
three women and two children among 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.
-
- Another two people were killed and six others hurt Wednesday
in an explosion at a police academy in Zubair, south of here, according
Issam Hazem Ainajli, a member of Basra's gubernorate council.
-
- The ministry of defence in London said four British soldiers
were injured, two seriously, in the explosion in Zubair.
-
- "We are now confirming four British injuries, two
of whom are serious," a ministry spokesman said in London, adding
that they were getting medical attention.
-
- 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 7:00 am (0300 GMT).
-
- 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.
-
- In Baghdad, a senior spokesman for the US-led coalition
spoke of 22 confirmed deaths -- 20 civilians and two Iraqi policemen --
in Basra.
-
- He added that there had been five explosions there, four
of which caused by car bombs. The cause of the fifth blast was not known,
the spokesman said.
-
- Television pictures showed charred wreckages of vehicles
including a school bus and a large crater in the ground.
-
- Coalition forces were only able to get to one of them,
the al Ashar police station, because crowds were stoning troops at the
other two, said British Squadron Leader Jon Arnold. He said there were
no reported coalition casualties.
-
- "There have been a series of explosions in central
Basra this morning. The explosions appear to have been targeted at Iraqi
police stations," he said.
-
- "We can confirm there have been a number of Iraqi
casualties. Coalition medical forces have been standing by to assist with
casualties.
-
- "We've got two sites we can't get to because coalition
forces are being stoned by crowds at the moment."
-
- 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.
-
- More than 600 Iraqis were killed, according to hospital
sources, and scores of US troops during bloody fighting in the worst trouble-spot
in Fallujah, west of Baghdad this month.
-
- The Basra attack came a day after 22 people were killed
and about 100 others injured in a mortar attack on a US-run prison west
of Baghdad.
-
- Coalition officials had been warning of a spectacular
attack in the next couple of weeks by insurgents opposing the occupation
of Iraq.
-
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of Agence France Presse.
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