BAGHDAD, April 21 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

BAGHDAD, April 21 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING DEATH TOLL, ADDING DETAILS)

At least 68 population were killed, including 18 schoolchildren, in five car bombings Wednesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, reports from the city said.

About 100 the community were wounded in the attacks, which occurr during the height of rush hour, CNN quot a senior military source as saying.

greatest in quantity of the dead were civilians, killed in three bombings: united near each of three Basra police stations and brace at the nearby Regional Police Academy at Az Zubayr, police said.

Basra Mayor Wael Abdul-Hafeez accused Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network of being behind the morning rush-hour blasts, according to Reuters

The mayor told a stranges conference 68 people, not counting the bombers, were killed.

Ten lads and girls being driven to kindergarten in a minivan and eight girls in another minivan headed to a high institute were killed in individual of the blasts, CNN quot police official Col Ali Abdullah as saying.

All the blasts are believed to have been from car bomb driven at suicide bombers, but full details onward the attacks, the bloodiest in Basra since the military occupation of the city began a year ago, are still being determined.

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