BASRA, Iraq - Suicide attackers detonated simultaneous car bombs against police buildings during rush hour today, killing 68 people, including children, in the bloodiest attacks to hit this mainly Shiite city since the U.S.-led occupation began a year ago.

Iraqis pulled charred and torn bodies from mangled vehicles in front of the Saudia police station, located by Basra's crowded main street market - one of three stations and a police academy hit just after 7 a.m. by a total of five car bombs, according to Basra's governor.

About 200 people were wounded, officials said.

Two vans passing by the Saudia station were destroyed - one carrying kindergartners, the other taking girls to middle school. Dead children, burned beyond recognition, were taken to hospital morgues.

Iraqi Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi blamed "terrorists." He said the Basra attack resembled suicide bombings earlier this year against Shiites and Kurds that were blamed on foreign Islamic militants.

"The information we have indicate that the attacks were carried out with car bombs," al-Sumeidi said. "The fingerprints of the parties that were behind the massacres in Iraq as in Irbil and Karbala can be seen in today's attacks."

U.S. officials have pointed to al-Qaida linked Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in March 2 suicide bombings at Shiite shrines in Karbala and Baghdad that killed at least 181. Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group based in the north, is suspected in Feb. 1 bombings in Irbil that left 109 dead.

Al-Zarqawi has outlined a plot to attack Shiite religious sites to foment civil war between Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni minority, say U.S. officials pointing to a letter from al-Zarqawi to al-Qaida leaders that the military says it intercepted earlier this year.

Basra's Governor Wael Abdul-Latif said up to 16 children and nine policemen were among the 68 dead, though other officials gave lower numbers of children. Police Commander Mohammed Kadhim al-Ali said the cars were packed with missiles and TNT.