U.S. forces find bombs at rebuilt Iraqi schools

Stars and Stripes,
Mideast edition, Tuesday, May 1, 2007



U.S. soldiers in Baghdad have found and defused “numerous” improvised explosives planted in a school for girls that was set to reopen later this month, military officials said Monday.

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division searched the school in Tarmiyah after “discovering a command wire leading from the school’s outer perimeter to one of the rooms” at the school, a news release read.

The Huda Girls’ School is located just north of Baghdad and was in the final stages of a reconstruction project led by the Tarmiyah government, officials said.

“This is the second time this month explosives have been found in the facility,” the release read.

Soldiers found five artillery shells fashioned into explosives in the classroom. In addition, two large explosive-filled propane tanks were buried underneath the school’s floor “and numerous projectiles [were] emplaced underneath electrical conduits in front of each classroom,” the release read.

U.S. officials attributed the planted explosives to members of al-Qaida in Iraq.