Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
By Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq--Blast walls have been erected and security guards posted outside schools in the Iraqi capital in the days since suspected insurgents gunned down five Shiite Muslim teachers in a classroom south of Baghdad.
Here in Karradah, a mostly Shiite neighborhood in central Baghdad, several men now tote assault rifles outside the Al-Zahraa elementary school for girls, and a new 16-foot wall shields the entrance, apparently to protect it in the event of a car bomb.
"We were surprised when we saw the wall, but we were told by our teachers that it is for our safety," said Nooralhuda Hadi, 12.
The school's director refused to say why the measures were taken, but they have given Nooralhuda's mother, Um Noor, some peace of mind. She had planned to transfer her daughter to another school after the attack, but the tighter security changed her mind.
"I know it's hard for Nooralhuda, but the teachers killed were Shiite and this is a Shiite school. This means it is a target," she said.
The Sept. 26 shootings at the Al-Jazeera elementary school in the village of Muelha, 30 miles south of Baghdad, were a rare attack on a school amid Iraq's relentless violence. While the teachers were Shiites, their pupils were mainly Sunnis, like the leaders of Iraq's insurgency.
As the five male teachers got into a minivan to head home, two cars pulled up carrying gunmen wearing police uniforms. The nine gunmen forced the teachers and their driver out of the van in front of pupils who were milling outside the school. The attackers dragged the six men into an empty classroom, lined them against a wall, and shot them to death. The gunmen escaped.
The attack came just weeks after Jordanian exile Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, declared an "all-out war" on the country's Shiite majority.
Security has also been strengthened around the Al-Anfal secondary school for girls in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, where insurgents are known to be active. Two men stood guard outside the school, which was surrounded by barbed wire.
BAGHDAD, Iraq--Blast walls have been erected and security guards posted outside schools in the Iraqi capital in the days since suspected insurgents gunned down five Shiite Muslim teachers in a classroom south of Baghdad.
Here in Karradah, a mostly Shiite neighborhood in central Baghdad, several men now tote assault rifles outside the Al-Zahraa elementary school for girls, and a new 16-foot wall shields the entrance, apparently to protect it in the event of a car bomb.
"We were surprised when we saw the wall, but we were told by our teachers that it is for our safety," said Nooralhuda Hadi, 12.
The school's director refused to say why the measures were taken, but they have given Nooralhuda's mother, Um Noor, some peace of mind. She had planned to transfer her daughter to another school after the attack, but the tighter security changed her mind.
"I know it's hard for Nooralhuda, but the teachers killed were Shiite and this is a Shiite school. This means it is a target," she said.
The Sept. 26 shootings at the Al-Jazeera elementary school in the village of Muelha, 30 miles south of Baghdad, were a rare attack on a school amid Iraq's relentless violence. While the teachers were Shiites, their pupils were mainly Sunnis, like the leaders of Iraq's insurgency.
As the five male teachers got into a minivan to head home, two cars pulled up carrying gunmen wearing police uniforms. The nine gunmen forced the teachers and their driver out of the van in front of pupils who were milling outside the school. The attackers dragged the six men into an empty classroom, lined them against a wall, and shot them to death. The gunmen escaped.
The attack came just weeks after Jordanian exile Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, declared an "all-out war" on the country's Shiite majority.
Security has also been strengthened around the Al-Anfal secondary school for girls in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, where insurgents are known to be active. Two men stood guard outside the school, which was surrounded by barbed wire.