MSNBC - Three explosions in Basra.

[TacticalPeek]

Police stations?

Kindergarden? Bus?

MSNBC says casualties; Faux says car of children on way to school.

Initial reports, blahblah.


Edit: Thanks for the Link, al.

[al bupp]

1. Here's a link to the Reuters article...

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4887319§ion=news

(edited link)

[alittlelark]

3. Yeah........link doesnt 'go'

[wtmusic]

5. Welcome to DU

al bupp, with '1 posts'!

:bounce: :toast: :bounce:

[al bupp]

23. Thanks for the Welcome

I've been lurking for a while, finally found a chance to toss something useful into the mix...

old :hippie:

[Mari333]

2. looks like someone hit the police stations

and civilians killed

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Explosions ripped through three police stations in Iraq's southern city of Basra on Wednesday, causing many casualties, police and witnesses said.
Police could not say how many people had been killed or wounded in the blasts, but one car carrying children to kindergarten had been caught in one explosion.

Two police stations in the central Ashar district were hit by mortar bombs, police said. The third police station targeted was in the Old City of Basra.

[Just Me]

44. So much unnecessary destruction,...

,...that was not happening 18 months ago,...

,...makes me so sad, for the loss of so many human lives,...

:cry:

They did nothing to my country.

Those people did not attack my country or threaten my country.

Now, they are hurting,...because of my country.

I am so, so sorry.

I tried with all my power to stop this from happening. I joined millions upon millions across the world to stop this,...and continue to build upon a growing force of humanity against this insanity.

HUMANITY REJECTS ANOTHER EMPIRE!!!!!

WE DEMAND PEACE!!!

WE BELIEVE IN OURSELVES AND REJECT YOU!!!

[On the Road]

4. Basra, Too?

Isn't this new for Basra?

[Mari333]

6. no it happened in 2003 also

but this is new for the police stations being attacked..otherwise it was relatively quiet...sounds like the "insurgents" are going after easier targets. They want to let the faux police know that the US led police force isnt welcome
time to get the hell out of there

[VolcanoJen]

7. Another link: AP

Police stations: yes. Schoolbuses: yes. Children on schoolbuses: no confirmation...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040421/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_blasts&cid=540&ncid=716

[TacticalPeek]

9. Bummer.

BASRA, Iraq - Near-simultaneous explosions believed to have been caused by car bombs ripped through three police station in southern Iraq (news - web sites) on Wednesday, killing at least 40 people and injuring some 200, a hospital source said.

At one station in the Saudia district of the city of Basra, four vehicles were seen destroyed including two school buses. At least one of the school buses appeared to have been full of passengers, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said

-----

Believed to be car bombs. Thanks for this link.

[peterh]

8. Explosions In Three Police Stations In Basra -4-

A hospital source says there are 40 dead and 200 injured.

(MORE) Dow Jones Newswires
04-21-04 0114ET(AP-DJ-04-21-04 0514GMT)
:cry:

[TahitiNut]

10. British troops being stoned - can't get to scene of explosions

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4887399§ion=news

[wtmusic]

16. Hey those flowers feel like stones...

Ouch!

[saigon68]

21. 1/2 a cobblestone means business

When it bounces off your dome.

[TahitiNut]

27. Well, some of us got stoned in 'Nam ...

... but it felt good. :silly:

[TacticalPeek]

11. BBC.

"A police colonel said about 10 elementary school students whose bus had been passing at the time of the blast were among the dead."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3644733.stm

[Trajan]

12. How awful .....

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

-- "To A Mouse" by Robert Burns

[peterh]

13. A fourth explosion

A fourth explosion near Basra's police academy went off about two hours after
the initial blasts. There was no immediate information on casualties from that
blast.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-21-04 0158ET(AP-DJ-04-21-04 0558GMT)


Damn...all hell is breaking loose on Wednesday....

[TacticalPeek]

14. Faux live now, saying 75 killed.

May be more to come, emergency/police have difficulty reaching sites with medical aid.

[Zhade]

15. Jesus.

Get the troops out NOW! Fuck!

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Here's the latest

What a mess!

Yahoo News


BASRA, Iraq - A series of explosions ripped through three police stations and a police academy in the southern Iraqi city of Basra Wednesday, killing at least 55 people, including some 10 schoolchildren, and injuring at least 238, officials said.

Three near simultaneous blasts targeted police stations at rush hour in Basra. At about the same time, a fourth explosion ripped through the police academy in the Basra suburb of Zubair. An hour later another blast targeted the same police academy.

Forty-five people were killed in the police station blasts and 10 were killed in the police academy explosions, officials and witnesses said. The injured included two British soldiers at the police academy, Maj. Hisham al-Halawi, spokesman for British forces in Basra, told Al-Arabiya television.

[maddezmom]

18. The blasts killed at least 55 people, including ten schoolchildren

Basra, Iraq — (04/21/04)-- Angry protesters have hampered the efforts of British troops trying to reach the scenes of several explosions in southern Iraq. The blasts killed at least 55 people, including ten schoolchildren.

Five explosions targeted police stations in Basra and the city's police academy. More than 230 people were wounded.

Hospital officials say the children were in school buses that just happened to be passing one of the scenes. Cars outside of that police station were charred. The interior of one of the school buses was burned out, the seats shredded.

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/042104_AP_r2_basra_mobs.html

[Skittles]

25. schoolchildren

what the f*** kind of world is this? Anyone want to explain WHERE GOD IS ??????????????????

[maddezmom]

19. Suicide Bombers Kill at Least 58 in Southern Iraq

Suicide Bombers Kill at Least 58 in Southern Iraq
Wed Apr 21, 2004 04:43 AM ET
(Page 1 of 3)


By Abdel-Razzak Hameed
BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Suicide bombers killed at least 58 people, many of them children, in co-ordinated strikes on four police stations that brought bloody chaos to Iraq's southern city of Basra on Wednesday, witnesses said.

Near-simultaneous explosions hit three police stations in Basra and one in the town of Zubair, 25 km (16 miles) south of the mainly Shi'ite city, the British military said.

"All four attacks seem to have been carried out by suicide bombers," said a British Defense Ministry spokeswoman in Basra.
~snip~

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4890043§ion=news

[Misunderestimator]

39. I think he's on vacation in Crawford

... talking to the pResident

on edit.... I meant that to be a reply to the "where is God" post... sorry :)

[Ilsa]

20. Well, aren't we nice occupiers...

to allow al queda into Iraq so we can fight our nasty terror war on someone else's turf? I remember reading on DU how infuriating it would be if Mexico and Canada declared war and decided to fight one another in Nebraska or California.

"I accuse al Qaeda," the mayor said. "We have arrested a person disguised in a police uniform. We are questioning him."

U.S. officials have blamed al Qaeda or its affiliates for some of the violence sweeping Iraq.


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CBWFX5MF0NBDSCRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=4892058

[maddezmom]

29. another link....Al Qaeda and car bombs???

~SNIP~
“The information we have indicate that the attacks were carried out with car bombs,” al-Sumeidi said.

“As for who is behind Basra attacks, it is clear that that the fingerprints of the parties that were behind the massacres in Iraq as in Irbil and Karbala can be seen in today’s attacks.”

US officials have pointed to al-Qaida linked Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for last month’s suicide bombings at Shiite shrines in Karbala and Baghdad that killed at least 181.

Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group based in the north, is suspected in February bombings in Irbil that left 109 dead.

Al-Zarqawi has outlined a plot to attack Shiite religious sites to foment civil war between Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni minority, say US officials pointing to a letter from al-Zarqawi to al-Qaida leaders that the military says it intercepted earlier this year.
~snip~
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2812878

[0007]

22. The entertainment networks are cranking up for a day of live

coverage from the horror zone. Over and over and over they'll go with never seen before Generals as guest for those whore commentators, that bring real entertainment to America. Children, schools, police stations being blown up, disrupting democracy. How dare those craze rag heads?

[saigon68]

26. They need to convince soccer moms to support the New "Bush Draft"

The "BUSH DRAFT" = PAUL WOLFMAN'S BIGGEST "WET DREAM"

[Iceburg]

24. CAR BOMBS??? ... or MISSILE ATTACKS?[/

CAR BOMBS??? ... or MISSILE ATTACKS?

Always be suspicious when no coalition casualties are reported ...

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/21/1082395906694.html
School buses hit, scores killed in Basra bombings
April 21, 2004 - 8:18PM
<snip>
British military spokesman Squadron Leader Jonathan Arnold said the blasts were believed to have been caused by car bombs.
Al-Muhammedawi said, however that the blast may have been caused by rocket attacks.
<snip>

Another source ...
Basra bombs kill dozens
Wednesday 21 April 2004, 12:15 Makka Time, 9:15 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/01697EBE-897F-4A34-BF96-01EE0F30FEDD.htm
<snip>
Mortars ripped through two stations in the central Ashar district early on Wednesday morning, according to Basra police chief General Muhammad al-Ali.

A British military spokesman, Squadron Leader John Arnold, said the third police station, in the Old City, was destroyed by a car bomb at 07:15 local time. (03:15 GMT)

And two people died when a fourth bomb damaged the police academy and detention centre building in central Basra, according to one governorate councillor, Issam Hazim.

Basra's mayor, Wail Abd al-Hafidh, said around 100 people had been seriously injured and that many children were among the dead and wounded.
The Sadr University Hospital's Dr Ali Ainali confirmed that at least 55 bodies had been brought to the morgue, though staff say there may be more bodies to come.
Three women and two children are among the 25 wounded taken in at another hospital in Basra.
But many more children are believed dead or seriously wounded as two school buses were caught up in the blasts.
Arnold added that although no British soldiers had been injured, they were being prevented from reaching two of the bomb sites because locals were stoning troops.
<snip>

And another ...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/04/21/national0707EDT0517.DTL
British military spokesman Squadron Leader Jonathan Arnold said the blasts were believed to have been caused by car bombs. However, Iraqi Police Col. Kadhem al-Muhammedawi said rockets may have been fired.


Another ...
http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=1565&list=/home.php&
<snip>
Eyewitnesses said British soldiers and US-appointed Iraqi police fled the scene of the explosions.
Basra police chief General Mohammad Kadhem al-Ali said missiles fell on three police stations after a series of three successive explosions which rocked the city soon after 7:00 am (0300 GMT). Two police stations in the central Ashar district were hit by mortar bombs, police said minutes after the blasts. The third police station targeted was in the Old City of Basra.
<snip>

Remember 1 year ago in Bagdad ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1197288,00.html
<snip>
Twenty other al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested and jailed by US forces in Iraq and one, Tariq Ayoub, was killed last April when a US tank fired a shell at the al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad's Palestine hotel. It was an accident, the Pentagon said, even though al-Jazeera had given the Pentagon the coordinates of its Baghdad offices before the war began.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1197288,00.html
<snip>

[54anickel]

30. Here's a bit more to feed those suspicious feelings

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2812878

snip>
Al-Zarqawi has outlined a plot to attack Shiite religious sites to foment civil war between Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni minority, say US officials pointing to a letter from al-Zarqawi to al-Qaida leaders that the military says it intercepted earlier this year.

In London, Tony Blair told MPs in the House of Commons that the attackers were “desperate” terrorists who “were prepared to attack literally the most defenceless people they can find, simply to cause chaos.”

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the attacks would not derail the planned hand-over of power to an Iraqi administration on June 30.

I read a post here recently that stated the only ones ever predicting a civil war was the US coalition. That most families were made of different tribes many with relatives of both Shiite and Sunni. Yet the US keeps pushing this idea of civil war.

Anyone have a quick link to that?

Something fishy here, perhaps Jack Straw's statement should be understood as the reverse of what he's actually saying.

[Iceburg]

31. Good pickup 54a ... Tenet's finger prints??? Spec Ops???

[54anickel]

41. Here's an interesting bit from back in March

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5435.shtml

snip>
As it weighs its options and seeks a UN formula that will defuse the political standoffs, the Bush administration has concentrated on both legitimizing the war and insulating itself from the potential fallout should civil war occur. Accusations against foreign terrorists, al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Islam and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have risen in virtually direct proportion to US setbacks. Particularly noteworthy is a letter that surfaced last month that was allegedly written by Zarqawi, a Jordanian, to al-Qaeda.

According to US sources, Zarqawi allegedly leads Ansar al-Islam, a group that "clearly is supported to some degree by al-Qaeda", said US General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Describing Zarqawi, the US State Department says he is "a close associate of Osama bin Laden". But also according to official US sources, Zarqawi's relationship to bin Laden is "uncertain", and he instead leads a Jordanian extremist group, al-Tawhid. And most notably, a recent report by the intelligence branch of the US Department of State stressed that al-Qaeda and Ansar appear quite unrelated and independent of each other, though last Thursday media reports by US officials have again claimed the contrary. But while contradictions abound, the killing has continued, with speculation existing that the Iraq war's hawks are manipulating its description for their own purposes, Zarqawi's alleged letter providing an example.

In the alleged letter to al-Qaeda, Zarqawi invites the group to Iraq in hopes of initiating a sequence of attacks which will set off civil war. However, US officials have long claimed that al-Qaeda is already in Iraq. This past week, US civil administrator L Paul Bremer charged that the last several months have marked an upsurge of Iraqi attacks by "the professional terrorists of al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam".

Of course, a most curious thing is that if indeed al-Qaeda is in the country, why did it need to be invited to Iraq by Zarqawi? And the US military does claim the alleged letter is authentic. But such "confusion" has been evident since US Secretary of State Colin Powell's UN address of a year ago.

At that time, in an attempt to win UN backing for the Iraq invasion, Powell told the UN of a "much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network ... a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden". Powell also said that Ansar "offered al-Qaeda safe haven in the region" in 2000. And Powell also claimed that Iraq had a stockpile "of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical-weapons agent, rocket launchers and warheads containing biological warfare agent, mobile production facilities used to make biological agents" and that it provided "training in these weapons to al-Qaeda".

more...

[54anickel]

43. Even more interesting - The rise and fall of Ansar al-Islam

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1016/p12s01-woiq.html

snip>

US officials were triumphant last spring, even as the broader Iraq invasion was still underway, after a three-day assault. Gen. Tommy Franks declared that a "massive terrorist facility in northern Iraq" had been "attacked and destroyed" by a joint US-Kurdish operation.

But today US officials assert that Ansar not only survived - like Gharib, who barely escaped after a four-hour bout with a US sniper - but that it is regrouping. They say Ansar is reinfiltrating Iraq with Kurdish and Arab militants from Iran, and, along with Saddam loyalists, is behind an increasing number of anti-US attacks across Iraq.

Lengthy interviews with several Ansar members now in custody, and with officials and intelligence sources of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in northern Iraq, however, yield a more ambiguous picture.

These sources describe a group now so decimated and demoralized that even true believers admit it is unlikely to be reborn according to its old template.

Instead, they say, elements of the group have begun operating in smaller cells. The "Ansar" label today, they add, is also being assumed by Islamic militants of all stripes, and used freely by the US-led coalition, regardless of ties to the original Kurdish group.

But the picture now emerging shows, too, how Washington exaggerated aspects of the threat from the 600 to 800 Ansar members.

more...

[maddezmom]

33. is this it?

Fables of the Reconstruction
The trigger for civil war Their corruption is our corruption Patronage & Bad P.R. Pre-war concerns validated

http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:62646

[54anickel]

38. Not the one I was thinking of, but pretty damning as well, isn't it? The

one I'm thinking of was from either a blog or something like commondreams. It was more of a discussion with an Iraqi, he was explaining how his in-laws were made up of both Shiite and Sunni. Also went into past issues between the tribes that did not escalate the way the US claims they would.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[0007]

32. Your over the top boy

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[maddezmom]

37. Al Qaeda doesn't need to help w/ the bad name

their videos speak for them :(

[progressivebydesign]

36. The U.S. is using the "Al Quaida" thing again..

.. they must have been buoyed by the sheer stupidity of the majority of Americans, who believe the Al Quaida and the Iraqis fighting for their freedom are one and the same. Convenient for Bush... anything that happens in Al Quaida. I'm getting to the point where I don't even want to wake up in the morning.. the world is going to shit, and Bush is cruising toward re-election. I KNEW, when Democrats blew their chance to point out how important it was that one party did NOT control ALL of Washington, and let the elections go all GOP, that we would be hosed. No oversight, no accountability, nothing.. Fuck the GOP, fuck them all. I'm going back to bed.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

40. 16 children, including kindergarteners

:(

[The_Casual_Observer]

42. Why is it that the press never talks about all the great things

that are going on in Iraq?:nuke: