A suicide car bomber killed at least six Iraqis in an attack on a Baghdad hotel used by US officials yesterday, shaking buildings blocks away with the force of the blast, the US military said.
Eyewitnesses said they saw a car crash through the security barrier at the Baghdad Hotel and explode. The heavily fortified hotel is widely thought to be used by members of the CIA, officials of the US-led coalition and their Iraqi partners in the Governing Council as well as US contractors.
PHOTO: AP
US military spokesman Colonel Peter Mansoor said no Americans had died. An Iraqi policeman at the scene earlier said at least 10 people had been killed.
At a nearby hospital, medics treated 19 people injured in the blast, many seriously. Three were civilians, six police and 10 security guards.
Mansoor said one American soldier was slightly injured.
Thick black smoke poured into the sky. Distraught Iraqis waited to see what had happened to relatives working at the hotel.
"I saw limbs and pieces of flesh everywhere," security guard Kahin Hussein said. "The US soldiers were picking them up off the floor."
Sirens wailed as ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scene. The bomb, which exploded 100m from the hotel, blew a crater 3m by 3m into the road.
A concrete bomb wall protecting the hotel was blown over by the force of the blast, which happened at about 12:45pm. The lower floor of the building next door was on fire.
"I was driving beside the hotel when a white car suddenly crashed through the security barrier and exploded," Iraqi eyewitness Sabah Ghulam said.
One witness said security guards opened fire on a car. A second car then drove up and exploded.
"People dived onto the ground, and I saw people dying on the pavement around me," Safa Adil said. "Iraq has just become a place of death, hatred and explosions."
US helicopters circled overhead minutes after the blast, obscured by the thick smoke. Soldiers and plain-clothed officials in US flak jackets carrying AK-47 rifles swarmed the street outside the hotel.
Dozens of Iraqi police raced to the scene. Shop windows all along the street were shattered.
Mansoor said most of the injured were on the street outside, not inside the hotel. He said the FBI, US Army and Iraqi police were investigating.
The attack was the latest in a series aimed at Western targets in Iraq, which the US blames on guerrillas resisting the American-led occupation. Iraqis seen as cooperating with the administration have also been targeted.
A few hours later, a roadside bomb exploded outside a sprawling US base in former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, wounding three soldiers, one seriously, an army spokesman said.
The explosives were detonated just outside a gate at the headquarters for Task Force Ironhorse as two US Humvee vehicles were passing, said First Lieutenant Don Calderwood, a spokesman for the 1st Brigade, 22nd Infantry Battalion.
Also See Story:
Government at risk as Arafat battles PM
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique