Charred bodies found in Pakistan mosque school

ISLAMABAD, July 12 (Reuters) The ceiling was blackened and the blades on overhead fans drooped, melted by the inferno caused by a suicide bomber who also killed five other people as Pakistani commandos stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque.

Five charred bodies were found in the room behind the stairs close to the entrance to Jamia Hafsa, a girls' madrasa in the mosque-school complex where government forces laid siege to Islamist militants and their student supporters for a week.

''There was a head on the floor,'' a Pakistani general told journalists as he took them on a tour of the battle zone inside Pakistan's Lal Masjid, the Urdu name for Red Mosque, a day after the fighting finished.

Typically, the force of a blast blows the head from a suicide bomber, and the torso is blown to pieces.

It was impossible to say whether the bomber and the five victims were boys or girls, men or women, Major-General Waheed Arshad, the military's spokesman said.

Suicide bombings were one of the government's greatest fears, though in the end this was the only suicide bomber to carry out the threat.

A verse from an Urdu poem on the wall of the school read: ''Even if you're alone and your enemies are in hundreds, don't see your weakness but have faith in the Almighty.'' ARMY SUCCESS? The apparent low numbers of casualties among women and children during the assault on the sprawling mosque-school complex could chalk this up as a success for the Pakistan army.

A city official overseeing mass burials that morning said they had taken care of only two children's bodies, both aged around 12.

Eighty-five people, including women, children and some militants, came out of the buildings, while commandos fought their way from room to room during Tuesday's assault.

At least 75 followers of the Taliban-style movement led by cleric brothers Abdul Rasheed Ghazi and Abdul Aziz were killed in the fighting, while nine members of the security forces were also killed and 29 wounded. At least 21 people died in the siege before the assault.

There were still some bloodstains to be seen on the stairwells. In a few isolated places, the air was thick with flies swarming around some vestiges of rotting flesh.

Smoke from a phosphorous grenade wafted through the corrugated tin roof of the kitchen in the girls' school. The smell of gun powder hung heavily over the compound.

Windows were smashed and walls were pocked by bullets.

Walls of some rooms bore orange and brown stains, the tell-tale sign of plastic explosives.

Upturned desks and books littered floors, along with bags and scattered belongings of students.

In other rooms, ceilings were blackened from petrol bombs.

Sand-bagged bunkers were pointed out to journalists, while recovered weapons and ammunition were put on display.

They included Kalashnikov automatic weapons, pistols, light machine guns, landmines, rocket-propelled grenades, a suicide vest and thousands of bullets. There was also jihadi literature and CDs.

The main hall of the mosque, which was largely cleared of militants by the first commando wave, was relatively unscathed, but the tin roof over the reception at the entrance was riddled with bullet holes.

The minarets, used by militants to fire down on the commandos, were badly damaged, but still standing.

REUTERS AM VV2312