Blast Near Baghdad School Wounds Many Children

[sabra]

Source: NY Times

BAGHDAD — An explosion near a school in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on Monday wounded scores of children, while militants elsewhere continued to attack Iraq’s security forces in a spate of bombings, shootings and poisonings.

Government officials gave contradictory accounts of the casualty figures, with the death toll from the blast varying from none to 15 children and the number of wounded anywhere from 41 to 56. The disagreement over the basic facts reflected the degree to which the various security forces often lack coordination in responding to major incidents.

There were also competing theories about what caused the blast. In a statement read on state television by Maj. Gen. Qassam Atta, spokesman for Baghdad Operation Command, the government claimed it was the result of an accidental detonation of a cache of explosives hidden near the school. Earlier reports from local security officials, however, suggested that it could have been the result of an errant missile or a planted explosive device.

The force of the blast blew out all the windows in the school, collapsing part of the building and two neighboring houses. In one classroom, a blue backpack sat unattended on a desk, books spilling out, stained with blood.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/world/middleeast/08iraq.html

[Soylent Brice]

1. K&R

[TrogL]

2. Fundamentalist religion hates education