2ND UPDATE / Basra hospital says received 80 casualties

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Saturday’s earlier blast in central Basra left 80 persons killed or wounded, all received by the Basra Teaching Hospital, according to a medic from the hospital. “The Basra Teaching Hospital received 80 people killed or wounded,” the medic told IraqiNews.com news agency. Earlier, a medic from the Basra Public Hospital said the explosion left 20 people killed or wounded as received by the hospital. He did not elaborate on the number of deaths or the number of wounded persons. A security source had said three improvised explosive devices went off in unison in central Basra province, leaving an unidentified number of casualties. “Three IEDs ripped through al-Ashar souk (outdoor market), near the Abdullah bin Ali Tomb in central Basra, leaving a number of people killed or wounded,” the source said. The oil-rich port city of Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (P) 3