AFT president Edward J. McElroy strongly condemned the brutal murder of five teachers and a school bus driver at an Iraqi elementary school south of Baghdad, declaring that "if terrorists succeed in turning schools into killing fields, there will be no chance for peace or stability in Iraq." Schools "should be safe havens for the children of all nations," said McElroy in a Sept. 27 statement. "In Iraq, this moral imperative takes on even greater urgency."

The murders occurred when nine gunmen wearing Iraqi police uniforms entered the village school and ordered the teachers and bus driver into a room, where they shot them in a spray of bullets, the Washington Post reports. The teachers and driver were Shiite Muslims who commute together by bus to the village school, located 30 miles south of the capital.

On Oct. 3, Reuters reported that four insurgents had been arrested and confessed to the killings. The insurgents were said to be wearing police uniforms when they arrived at the school in two civilian cars before leading the teachers and the bus driver to a deserted part of the school and then shooting them.  (10-4-05)