Several Blasts Kill 30 in Basra

Car bombs exploded almost simultaneously outside three police stations in the southern city of Basra early today, killing at least 30 people and injuring dozens of others.

The attacks in a normally quiet part of Iraq came a day after insurgents fired mortar rounds at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, killing 22 detainees and injuring nearly 100 in another assault that appeared aimed at U.S. forces along one of the nation’s most dangerous highways.

U.S. military officials in Baghdad said today that there were five Basra explosions in all, including the blasts at the three police stations and one at a police training facility. At least two of the dead were Iraqi police officers.

Al Jazeera television showed footage of a crater in the street, blackened bodies in the backs of pickup trucks and women wailing.

Though the region has seen numerous riots and is struggling with discontent over unemployment, terrorist bombings have been rare.

“It was a huge explosion. I saw a lot of bodies and injuries. One of the bodies was beheaded,” said Falah Hassan Yassim, 31, a hotel waiter who was driving by one of the police stations.

He said that he saw at least four vehicles destroyed, including a bus. There were reports that schoolchildren were among the victims.

After the first blast, about 7:10 a.m., police officers at one station, called the Basra station, ran up to the roof to get a better view, said Alaa Kadhim, who was driving past. Then that station was hit with its own explosion, she said.

“Basra used to be safe,” said Amal Oochi, a receptionist at a nearby hotel. “We could stay out until 10 p.m. at the shops. Now we cannot. This will create more intimidation and fear.”

At Abu Ghraib, site of the earlier attack, the prison holds hundreds of suspected insurgents and anti-coalition collaborators and symbolizes the anger many Iraqis feel toward the American occupation. U.S. officials said 18 mortar rounds were fired toward the prison guarded by American troops, some of the shells landing amid a tent camp inside the walls where detainees were eating lunch. No American casualties were reported.

The prison sits off the highway toward Fallouja -- a perilous stretch of road from which insurgents have ambushed U.S. convoys and snatched hostages.

Officials of Halliburton Co. on Tuesday made public the identities of three victims of an April 9 fuel convoy attack near Abu Ghraib, whose burned bodies were later found near the site. The men, employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, were identified as Stephen Hulett, 48, of Manistee, Mich.; Jack Montague, 52, of Pittsburg, Ill.; and Jeffery Parker, 45, of Lake Charles, La. A fourth body remained unidentified.

At least one U.S. soldier and a KBR truck driver were killed in the attack and four KBR employees remained missing, including Thomas Hamill, who appeared in a video in the custody of armed Iraqi insurgents shortly after the attack but had not been heard from since.

Dotted with the burned shells of military trucks and often marked by coiling black smoke, the highway Tuesday was also flecked with residents returning to Fallouja.

But today, a tentative cease-fire in a two-week standoff between insurgents and U.S. Marines was shattered when insurgents fired on Marine positions with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns in the Johan neighborhood.

The local mosque broadcast calls to fight the Americans as the U.S. broadcast warnings that the cease-fire violation would be met with force. The Marines called in Cobra helicopter gunships and tanks. An unknown number of insurgents were killed. There were Marine casualties, but their number and the severity of the injuries were not immediately known.

“It appears the enemy has put a plan together to violate the cease-fire. They’re actively trying to create conditions of instability. We are reacting with decisive force,” said Lt. Col. Gregg Olson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that he did not believe negotiations were likely to lead to a solution.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell phoned “almost all” the members of the U.S.-led coalition to assess their commitment to remaining in Iraq after Spain’s announcement this week that it planned to withdraw its troops.

Honduras and the Dominican Republic also announced that they would withdraw their soldiers, and Thailand said it would withdraw if its troops were attacked.

“I’m getting solid support for our efforts, commitments to remain and finish the job they came to do,” Powell said.

Powell also “heard some issues and concerns about the security situation,” Richard Boucher, the department’s chief spokesman, said later.

At the White House, Press Secretary Scott McClellan dismissed Honduras’ decision, saying, “Actually, the coalition in Iraq is strong.... Remember, there are more than 30 nations who are participating in our efforts in Iraq, and we appreciate the strong statements reaffirming their commitment to helping the Iraqi people realize a free and peaceful future.”

The mortar explosions at Abu Ghraib turned the prison grounds to chaos, amid which Black Hawk helicopters flew the wounded to hospitals. “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of attack,” Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told Associated Press radio. “We don’t know if they’re trying to inspire an uprising or a prison break.”

Insurgents have been firing at the prison for months because of the high concentration of American troops patrolling the site.

One prison employee said, “We heard the first explosion, it was approximately 1 p.m., and then people started shouting, ‘Allahu akbar’ [God is great].”

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Fallouja, where homes and streets have been battered in some of the worst fighting since the war began, residents who had fled a week earlier filed through two Marine checkpoints on their way home. Twenty families of 10 members each were allowed back into Fallouja. In a deal struck Monday by U.S. officials and local leaders aimed at preventing another Marine offensive, Iraqi police officers returned to work and insurgents were supposed to turn in their heavy weapons.

A temporary truce had been called after more than 700 Iraqis and dozens of Marines were killed in fighting in the days following the March slaying and mutilation of four American contractors.

“We are very serious about a peaceful resolution to the situation in Fallouja,” said Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority. “But everybody must recognize that in the absence of a true cease-fire, major hostilities will return on short notice.”

At a checkpoint near what U.S. troops call the “Brooklyn Bridge,” Marines eyed returning residents and were left to puzzle at who belonged to what family and who might be pretending to be a family member to slip into Fallouja to join the insurgents. Several young men were detained as possible insurgents.

“I could use another translator,” said Pfc. Cody Blaylock, 19, of San Angelo, Texas, as the line began to stretch a hundred yards or more and patience began to melt in the midday sun.

Once a quota had been filled, Marines explained to those in line that they would have to return at 6 a.m. An older man protested that that was too early for him to get up.

Gunnery Sgt. Tim Baldwin, 36, of Reading, Pa., turned to an Arabic interpreter for help: “How do you say, ‘If you snooze, you lose?’ ”

Marine officials expect the lines to form earlier and at greater length as word spreads among the displaced that Fallouja appears to be returning to a modicum of normality even if the possibility of more fighting looms.

“We need to return to our homes and see if our families are still alive,” said Salem Thiech, as he waited. “We are worried. We have done nothing wrong.”

If the insurgents do not relinquish their arms, offensive operations could resume, U.S. officials warned. Three battalions of Marines have encircled the city.

Last week, an estimated 65,000 residents fled toward Baghdad when Marines opened a checkpoint on the highway. Days earlier, several thousand residents were paid $250 per family to leave a densely populated public housing project on the northwest corner of the city that Marines are now using for a command post.

The green bridge is the demarcation between the area controlled by Marines and the core of the city still controlled by heavily armed insurgents.

The killing of the four American contractors occurred two blocks east of the bridge, and assailants hung two burned bodies from the bridge superstructure.

Today, Marines control the area west of the bridge but do not venture toward the central city, lest they be attacked.

“There’s nothing good at the end of that bridge, nothing good at all,” said Lance Cpl. Charles Ziegler, 25, of Toledo, Ohio.

Along with opening the bridge to families seeking entry to the city, Marines are allowing residents to use it to get to Fallouja General Hospital, just on the west side across the street from the Marine compound.

Times staff writers Perry and Fleishman reported from Fallouja, and special correspondent Rifai reported from Abu Ghraib. Times staff writers Edmund Sanders in Baghdad and T. Christian Miller, Esther Schrader, Paul Richter and Edwin Chen in Washington also contributed to this report.