Iraq officials admit confusion over children killed

BAGHDAD, Feb 28 (Reuters) A report of a bomb killing 18 people, mostly children, in the Iraqi city of Ramadi was wrong and stemmed from confusion over a similar attack the day before, police officials and residents said today.

The reported killing of so many children drew swift condemnation from the president and the prime minister, but Colonel Tariq al Theibani, security adviser for Anbar province, said the report of the bombing yesterday was wrong.

''It happened the day before yesterday,'' he told Reuters.

He said 18 people, many of them children, were killed on Monday by a suicide car bomb, as previously reported. The US military had put the death toll from that attack at 15.

Iraq's government and police had reported yesterday another bomb near a soccer field killing 18 people, mostly children. The US military, which has a heavy presence in Anbar, had said it was unaware of such an attack.

But the US military said its soldiers had carried out a controlled explosion in the volatile western city, also near a soccer field, that wounded 30 people, including nine children yesterday afternoon.

Theibani said the confusion may have arisen partly because the victims of Monday's car bomb were buried yesterday.

The loud blast from Tuesday's controlled explosion near a soccer field may have also contributed to the confusion.

The US military often carries out controlled explosions in Iraq to destroy captured weapons or unexploded bombs.

Other police sources in Ramadi and residents also confirmed that the report of the death of children in a blast on Tuesday was wrong, and said there were no major attacks that day in Ramadi.

According to a US statement, in Monday's attack insurgents killed 15 Iraqis including women, children and two police officers in a car bomb near a mosque in a residential neighbourhood in northwestern Ramadi.

Theibani blamed Monday's attack on al Qaeda.

Reuters PDM VP1320