BASRA, Iraq - Suicide attackers unleashed car bombings against police buildings in Iraq's biggest Shiite city yesterday morning, striking rush-hour crowds and killing at least 68 people, including 16 children incinerated in their school buses. Iraqi leaders blamed al-Qaida militants.
The attacks - which wounded about 200 people, 168 critically --marked a revival of devastating suicide bombings, which U.S. officials blame on foreign militants and which had not been seen during this month's widespread battles with homegrown guerrillas across Iraq.
President Bush condemned the suicide attacks in Basra and in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where a car bomb blasted national police headquarters, killing at least nine people and wounding 125.
They attacked today in Basra. Killed innocent Iraqis. They attacked today in Riyadh. ... They attack all the time. They'd like to attack us again
by the way he said.
There was no indication of a connection between the two attacks.
The bombing in the Saudi capital yesterday killed at least four people and wounded 148. The attack also had the hallmark of an al-Qaida operation, officials said.
The explosion, heard three miles away, shattered the glass facades of nearby buildings and ignited several fires. Smoke billowed from the seven-story General Security building, where workers issue drivers license renewals and do other administrative tasks. The bombing happened about 2 p.m., a time when staff would have been leaving their offices.
In Fallujah, the bloodiest battlefield in April, an agreement aimed at bringing peace to the city ran into trouble yesterday. Insurgents attacked Marines, prompting fighting that killed 20 guerrillas.
About 350 miles to the south, in Basra, bombers struck at 7 a.m., just as the city's main street market, near one of the targeted police stations, was opening for the day. Shoppers were headed to the stalls of vegetables and other goods, and children were passing on their way to school.
The attackers detonated four cars packed with missiles and TNT in front of three police stations - one of them next to Basra's main street market - and a police academy. An hour later, another car bomb went off outside the police academy in Zubair, a suburb of mainly Shiite Basra.
Police discovered two other car bombs before they were detonated and arrested three men in the vehicles, said Gov. Wael Abdul-Latif, who blamed the attacks on al-Qaida.
The blast in front of the Saudia police station wrecked and charred vehicles, including school buses taking kindergartners and girls ages 10-15 to school.
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