Bomber Kills 18 Kids, Teens in Iraq
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
excerpts:
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A car bomb exploded next to U.S. troops handing out candy and toys, killing 18 children and teenagers Wednesday. Parents heard the shattering explosion and raced out to the discover the worst — children's mangled, bloodied bodies strewn on the street.
Up to 27 people were killed by the blast in the Shiite Muslim neighborhood, including an American soldier. At least 70 people were injured, a newborn and three U.S. soldiers among them.
Twelve of the dead were 13 or younger and six were between 14 and 17, said police Lt. Mohammed Jassim Jabr. Among the wounded was 4-day-old Miriam Jabber, cut slightly by flying glass and debris.
"There were some American troops blocking the highway when a U.S. Humvee came near a gathering of children," said Karim Shukir, 42. The troops began handing out candy and smiley-face key chains.
"Suddenly, a speeding car bomb ... struck both the Humvee and the children," Shukir said.
At Kindi hospital, where many victims were taken, a distraught mother swathed in black sat cross-legged outside the operating room. "May God curse the mujahedeen and their leader," she cried, referring to the insurgents as she pounded her head with her fists in grief.
"The car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack one of our vehicles as the soldiers were engaged in a peaceful operation with Iraqi citizens," said Maj. Russ Goemaere, a Task Force Baghdad spokesman.
"The terrorist undoubtedly saw the children," Goemaere said, calling the attack "absolutely abhorrent."
In September 2004, 35 Iraqi children were killed as bombs exploded while American troops handed out candy at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a Baghdad sewage plant. It marked the largest death toll of children in an insurgent attack since the Iraq conflict began.
In a separate Baghdad attack Wednesday, a roadside bomb exploded near an American patrol, killing a 7-year-old child and seriously wounding a woman, police said.
for the rest of the story:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162356,00.html