35 Children Slain By Enemy in Iraq

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BAGHDAD, Iraq – A string of bombs killed 35 children and wounded scores of others as American troops handed out candy yesterday at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage plant. It was the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the start of the Iraq conflict.


Grief-stricken mothers wailed over their children’s bloodied corpses, as relatives collected body parts from the street for burial, and a boy picked up the damaged bicycle of his dead brother.


The wounded were rushed to Yarmouk Hospital, where angry relatives screamed for attention from the overwhelmed doctors, many of whom wore uniforms covered in blood. One woman tore at her hair before pulling back the sheet covering her dead brother and kissing his body.


The bombings in Baghdad’s western al-Amel neighborhood – at least two of which were in cars – came amid a series of savage attacks that killed at least 51 people and wounded 230 nationwide. At least one American soldier was among the dead and 13 were wounded.


Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for bloody attacks in Baghdad yesterday, according to a statement posted on a terrorist Web site. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, and it was unclear whether the three “heroic operations” it cites – attacks on a government complex and “a convoy of invading forces” – included the bombs that killed the children.


Early reports said an American convoy was passing by the celebration when the attack occurred. The American military said later that American soldiers were taking part in the celebration but that no convoy was passing through the area.


The deputy interior minister, General Hussein Ali Kamal said intense military pressure on insurgents holed up in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, was forcing them to turn their bombs on the capital. He said the day’s attacks were “definitely coordinated.”


“They are killing citizens and spreading horror. They have no aims except killing as many Iraqis as they can,” General Kamal said.


Sixty miles north of Baghdad, American troops and Iraqi national guardsmen launched a brigade-sized operation in Samarra, one of the country’s major insurgent strongholds, according to a CNN reporter embedded with the military in the area. Brigade operations could involve several thousand troops.


The report, broadcast early today, said the troops were moving against some 2,000 rebels believed to be inside the city. They were clearing buildings and mosques, CNN said.


After the bombings at the government-sponsored celebration in the capital, Yarmouk Hospital received 42 bodies, including 35 children, said Dr. Azhar Zeid. The hospital also treated 131 wounded, 72 of them under age 14, added Mohammed Salaheddin.


Separately, American and Iraqi forces launched a major attack against the insurgent stronghold of Samarra early today, securing government and police buildings in the city, the American command said. The offensive came in response to “repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces” against Iraqi and coalition forces, the military said in a statement. Its aim was to kill or capture insurgents in the city.


“Unimpeded access throughout the city for Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Forces is nonnegotiable,” said the statement, which was issued early today in Baghdad. Troops of the American 1st Infantry Division, Iraq’s national guard and its regular army took part in the nighttime assault.


It said terrorist attacks and acts of intimidation against the people of Samarra had undermined the security situation in the city, regarded as one of the top three insurgency strongholds in Iraq, along with Fallujah, and the Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.


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