Basra police station bombings kill 55 in Iraq

At least 55 people have been killed, many of them children, in co-ordinated car bombs that struck three police stations in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Fresh clashes erupted in the flashpoint city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, residents said, just hours after United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld voiced pessimism over peace talks there, making clear US Marines would resume an offensive if Sunni Muslim guerrillas did not abide by a fledgling deal.

a Reuters correspondent said he had counted 40 bodies at one Basra hospital. Among the dead were many children who had been going to kindergarten in a minibus that was caught in one blast. Many other civilians and police were killed or wounded.

"There were three separate explosions at police stations at about 7.15am local time (3.15pm NZT)," said a British military spokesman, Squadron Leader John Arnold. "They were vehicle-based improvised explosive devices."

He said heavy casualties were feared, but he had no exact figures, partly because emergency vehicles and British troops who control Basra could not reach two of the police stations.

"They are being stoned," Arnold said, adding that no casualties among British forces had been reported.

Arnold said it was too early to say if the attacks were suicide bombings.

The morning rush hour explosions sowed panic across Basra, which had been relatively peaceful during this month's surge of violence in other parts of central and southern Iraq.

Several charred vehicles, including a minibus, lay in the street at the scene of one blast.

In Falluja, residents said Marines and guerrillas traded mortar, machinegun and rocket-propelled grenade fire in the clashes that broke out at around 6am local time (2pm NZT) and were still raging in the city's Golan district three hours later.

"The current state of affairs in Falluja will not continue indefinitely. Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing.

The Dominican Republic became the third nation this week to announce plans to withdraw its troops from Iraq. It said it would bring its 300 troops home as soon as possible.

Honduras said its 370 soldiers would return from Iraq within two months. Spain said on Monday it had begun the process of withdrawing its 1,400-strong contingent.

US President George W Bush, seeking re-election in November with Iraq high on the campaign agenda, said US-led forces in the country remained strong despite the withdrawals.

"We must continue to rally a coalition of the willing, to stay tough and determined," he said at a campaign fund-raiser.

Australia, which has vowed to keep its troops in Iraq, will not send more to help fill the void left by the withdrawals of others, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday.

In Iraq's worst violence on Tuesday, a mortar barrage on a US-run prison in Baghdad killed 22 prisoners.

Guerrillas attacked a US military convoy in the northern city of Mosul, killing one American soldier and bringing to 111 the number of US combat deaths since March 31.

Since US-led forces invaded Iraq in March last year, 510 US soldiers have been killed in action.

The killing and public mutilation of four US private security guards in Falluja on that day prompted the Marines to begin an assault on rebels in the city on April 5.

A fragile truce had given Falluja a respite that allowed civilians who had fled the intense street fighting to start trickling back to the city on Tuesday, when some shops reopened and some Iraqi police returned to duty under the peace deal.

The fighting left Falluja littered with burned-out cars, charred houses and a sports ground turned into an emergency cemetery. Many of the graves carried no name.

The Falluja battles had coincided with an uprising led by a rebel Shi'ite cleric across many towns in the south.

Anxious not to alienate Iraq's majority Shi'ites, US forces were preparing to pull back from a forward base near Najaf, where the cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, has taken refuge.

Canada said one of its citizens had been kidnapped in Iraq - the latest in a spate of hostage-taking this month that has snared foreign civilians from more than a dozen countries.

A Foreign Ministry official in Ottawa said Mohammed Rifat, 41, was being held by an unknown group.

But Italy said it was expecting news soon of three Italian civilians being held by guerrillas who killed another Italian last week because of Rome's military presence in Iraq.

"We hope for positive news," said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose government says it will keep troops in Iraq.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq