Massacre of the children

Bombers today massacred a busload of schoolchildren in one of the worst atrocities since the Iraq war.

First reports suggested 10 children were among up to 68 people killed by four apparent suicide blasts in the British-controlled city of Basra.

Witnesses said the bus, travelling to a nursery school, took the full force of one massive bomb, which left at least 200 people injured. Bloodied and badly burned bodies were seen.

Close by, the charred wreckage of another school bus could also be seen. It is not yet known if there were any passengers on board. Both buses were passing the Saudia police station when the blast happened at 7.15am local time.

Shortly afterwards there was a further explosion at a police academy which left three Iraqis dead and four British soldiers injured, two seriously.

Amin Dinar said from his hospital bed: "I saw my leg bleeding and my neighbour lying dead, torn apart. I saw a minibus full of children on fire."

Three of the intended targets were police stations in the southern city, which had been relatively peaceful amid this month's surge of violence in other parts of central and southern Iraq.

One journalist who visited Basra's main hospital counted the bodies of 10 children and 30 adults but other estimates put the number of dead as high as 58. The death toll was expected to mount, with rescue efforts by British soldiers who control the city being obstructed by militiamen. Television pictures showed dozens of local men pelting British tanks, while elsewhere soldiers came under heavy attack from mortar rounds.

Iraqi police colonel Kadhem al-Muhammedawi said mortar bombs had hit two police stations in the central Ashar district and a third station was hit in the old city.

An official at the Sadr teaching hospital said the bodies of 39 victims had been identified, while 16 other bodies were burned beyond recognition.

British military spokesman Squadron Leader John Arnold said: "There were three separate explosions at police stations at about 3.15am GMT. They were vehiclebased improvised explosive devices."

The whole of the facade of the Saudia station was also heavily damaged, and there was a hole two yards deep and three yards wide in front of the station.

An MoD spokesman said the attacks were "worrying" because Basra had recently been "peaceful".

The four British soldiers were injured in the town of Zubeir, south of Basra. A British spokesman said he had no other details as yet, although an hour later another blast targeted the same police academy.

Meanwhile, insurgents were launching an offensive in the central city of Fallujah. Residents said marines and guerrillas traded mortar, machinegun and rocket-propelled grenade fire in the clashes that broke out at around 6am local time and were still raging three hours later.

US sources said the insurgents were mounting a "massive" barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire which could be heard throughout the city.

Further cracks appeared in the coalition that invaded Iraq, meanwhile, when the Dominican Republic became the third nation this week to announce plans to withdraw its troops. It said it would bring its 300 soldiers 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.

The attacks came hours after a mortar barrage on a US-run prison in Baghdad killed 22 prisoners and wounded more than 90.

All the casualties at the Abu Ghraib jail west of Baghdad were among the 4,400 people detained there on security grounds.

Insurgents also attacked a US military convoy in the northern city of Mosul, and one American soldier died of his wounds. Four others were injured, an army spokesman said.

Military sources had claimed tension was easing at the flashpoint cities of Fallujah and Najaf.

Witnesses said civilians who had fled battles between US marines and Sunni insurgents had yesterday headed back to Fallujah on foot.

Thousands of Iraqis had left Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, to escape fierce fighting in which hundreds of civilians and dozens of marines were killed this month.

US marines launched a clampdown in Fallujah on 5 April after crowds burned and mutilated the corpses of four US private security guards ambushed there on 31 March.

In a further setback for the coalition Canada said one of its citizens had been kidnapped - the latest in a recent spate of hostage-taking.