IRAQ: Iraqi insurgents yesterday visited untold grief on families when their bombs murdered scores of children. Jack Fairweather reports from Baghdad
At the Hai al-Amaal sewage plant, it was meant to have been a good news day for Baghdadis yesterday. After months of repair work to the plant, American officers and Iraqi officials gathered to celebrate its opening.
Outside, a large crowd of children had gathered to play with American soldiers guarding the delegation.
"The Americans were giving out chocolates," said one 15-year-old boy who was injured by shrapnel wounds 300 metres from the blast site.
"Everyone closer than me to the explosion was killed."
For most of the children it was their penultimate day of holiday before schools open next week.
Hassan Abdul Hussein (12) described how American soldiers agreed to move one of their tanks so that they could play a football match. One soldier showed the boys pictures of his girlfriend in America.
"The Americans were playing with us. There was a huge crowd of children," said Hassan, whose legs were wounded.
When the unit began to pull out as the ceremony closed, most of the children remained behind. Ten minutes later the first two suicide bombers struck.
Mr Hamid Mohammed, the plant's manager, ran outside to see a street strewn with body parts and injured children. The remaining US soldiers were firing into the air, he said, but could not stop people rushing to the scene. Mohammed was carrying one dead child in his arms when the third bomber struck.
"I heard the sound of a missile. Then the second explosion took place. I think it was a missile," said Mohammed, who sustained a serious facial wound. He was able to crawl through the field of bodies to a neighbouring house before losing consciousness.
Mr Abu Yassin, the father of Hassan Abdul Hussein who had gone to play with the Americans, rushed from his house after the blasts to try and find his son.
"I saw many bodies lying on the ground, most of them children. I started carrying one body which I thought was my son. Then I saw by his clothes that it wasn't. I laid the dead child to rest with two other bodies," he said.
"These are Iraqi children. Children from my neighbourhood. Now they are all gone."
Many of the children were taken to the al-Yarmuk central hospital in Baghdad. One woman ran through the main entrance screaming, "Where is my son?" She was directed to the morgue, where many of the children were taken, many disfigured beyond recognition. Family members stood outside wailing.
Many relatives angrily blamed American forces for launching the attacks - a frequent accusation now among Iraqis who have struggled to come to terms with the violence in the country. "Why else would the Americans lure children to go over to them if they weren't planning to attack them?" asked one man.
In the hospital's emergency ward, injured children lay silent, wrapped in bandages, many barely conscious. Among them was 12-year-old Hassan, reunited his father, Abu Yassin. He said he was thankful his son was alive.
"Is this the freedom and democracy we were meant to have?" asked Abu Yassin. "This is destruction."