Bombers 'won't halt Iraq power transfer'

The handover of power in Iraq will not be derailed by the suspected al Qaida suicide bombings in Basra which killed 68 people, the Government said.

The series of explosions at rush hour yesterday, which also injured 200 people including five British soldiers, marked the worst violence in British-controlled southern Iraq since the start of the coalition occupation a year ago.

Up to 16 schoolchildren were thought to have died as buses taking them to school were caught up in the car bombs, blamed by British and local Iraqi officials on al-Qaida.

In the British Commons, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the bombings, which he described as a sign of desperation by the terrorists.

“The terrorists are becoming sufficiently desperate that they are prepared to attack literally the most defenceless people they can find simply in order to create the maximum chaos,” he said.

Mr Blair told MPs that there were no plans to reinforce British troops in the city in the wake of the attack, although he said that force levels were kept under continuous review.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the attacks were clearly designed to disrupt the transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi administration on June 30.

But the terrorists would not be allowed to “derail” the transition process, he said.

“The people of Iraq will not be deprived of the better future they deserve.”

The suicide car bombs exploded almost simultaneously outside the three city centre police stations and the police academy in the suburb of Al Zubyar.

A fifth bomb went off outside the academy two hours later, while two more car bombs and their drivers were reportedly captured before carrying out their attacks.

The blast outside the Saudia police station – close to the crowded main market street – destroyed two passing school buses, one carrying kindergarten children, the other taking girls to a middle school.

The explosion left a crater 6ft deep and 9ft wide in the street outside the police station.

Angry Iraqis at the scene turned on British soldiers who tried to help, blaming them for the failure to ensure security in the city.

Five soldiers from the 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers were hurt in the explosions – one seriously, the MoD said.

The battalion, based in Aldershot, Hampshire, arrived in Iraq to begin operations this month.

Many of the dead and injured were taken to Basra’s Educational Hospital, the biggest in the city.

Dozens of bodies could been seen in the mortuary and corridors as staff struggled to cope with the scale of the carnage.

The mayor of Basra, Wael Abdul-Hafeez, directly blamed Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

“I accuse al-Qaida,” he said. “We have arrested a person disguised in a police uniform. We are questioning him.”

Iraqi interior minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud a Sumeidi said the attacks bore the same “fingerprints” as bombings earlier this year which left hundreds dead in the cities of Karbala and Irbil.

US authorities have blamed the Karbala attacks on the al-Qaida-linked Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, while the Irbil bomb was attributed to the Ansar al-Islam group which is also though to have al-Qaida links.

British officials said they believed that either al Qaida or former Baathists still loyal to Saddam Hussein were responsible.

Officials said they were “confident” that the attacks were not primarily the work of local Shias, although they acknowledged that the bombers probably had help from elements within the city.

One official admitted that it would have had “huge” implications for the British forces in the city if the southern Shias, who have largely supported the occupation, were turning against them.

“I think there are only two candidates for it. One is former regime elements, the second is terrorists linked, however loosely, to al-Qaida,” the official said.

“I remain fairly confident it was not the Shia.”

The commander of British troops in Basra later refused to blame al-Qaida for the attack.

But he said the perpetrators were certainly from outside Basra and “quite possibly” from outside Iraq.

Brigadier Nick Carter told Channel Four News: “All that we can be certain of is that this is something that came from outside.

“We work very closely with the community down here and our information is very good. I think we also are absolutely clear that nobody in the Shia community would regard this as being something that is worth doing in Basra.”