BASRA, April 22: Iraqis vented their rage on Thursday at British occupation forces they blame for suicide bombings in Basra that killed 68 people the previous day. As residents of the southern port city mourned their dead, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) pointed the finger of blame at the Al Qaeda network for Wednesday's coordinated attacks, which cost the lives of 20 schoolchildren.

"It looks like Al Qaeda," said a senior official. "It's got all the hallmarks: it was suicidal, it was spectacular and it was symbolic." The British premier told reporters in London that those responsible for the attacks were "evil, barbaric people who should not have a stranglehold over the future of Iraq".

But in Basra, hundreds of supporters of Shia leader Moqtada Sadr took to the streets to blame the attacks on the British troops, who control southern Iraq. A spokesman for Moqtada Sadr, wanted by the US forces, said he had evidence British troops were involved in the coordinated attacks on police installations in Basra and nearby Zubair.

"The Iraqi people say that Al Qaeda is not involved in the attacks which must be blamed on the criminal Tony Blair," one banner claimed. British military spokesman Captain Hisham Hallawi told CNN it was "completely untrue" that British troops had instigated the massacre in the city. -AFP