Terrorist Bastards!

Schoolchildren blown up in Baghdad blast

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three Iraqi children were killed by a roadside bomb near their school in a wave of explosive violence in Baghdad that claimed a total of 11 lives, police said.

The children were on their way to school Wednesday when they stopped to examine a bag in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Fadel, a lower-income predominantly Sunni area, witnesses said.

"I saw the children playing with a bag lying in front of a photography store and suddenly it exploded," said Ali Mahmud, 35, who was driving by in his minibus.

Five store fronts were destroyed and walls smeared with bits of flesh and blood from the two boys and girl caught in the blast.

"I saw the body of one of the children thrown five meters (yards) into the street and I didn't have time to stop my bus and ran over it," Mahmud said. "It was awful."

The children were believed to be aged about 11.

"These are takfireen (Islamist extremists)," said Mohammed Sami, standing on the street near the blast site littered with rubble and bits of bone. "This is not jihad, this is terrorism."

The Rest of the Story