It was the second big car bombing in the capital in the past four
days. A suicide bomber on Thursday hit a police station in Sadr
City, the northeast Shiite Muslim slum, killing at least 10 people,
including the bomber.
Police Col. Adnan Radif put the death toll at two, including the
bomber. Other police at the scene said the bomber's victim was an
Iraqi security guard. At al-Kindi Hospital, Dr. Ahmed Mustafa said
his facility was treating 32 wounded people and that four of them
were in critical condition.
Al-Jazeera satellite television interviewed Governing Council
member Mouwafak al-Rabii, who was in the hotel at the time. He said
he was slightly injured in the hand.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, quickly
issued a statement of condolences to the victims.
"The terrorists know that the Iraqi people and the coalition are
succeeding in the reconstruction of Iraq. They do not share the
vision of hope for this new Iraq. They will do anything, including
taking the lives of innocent Iraqis, to draw attention away from the
extraordinary progress made since Liberation.
"The terrorists will not succeed. Neither the coalition nor the
Iraqi people will be intimidated from our path to a democratic Iraq.
We will work with the Iraqi police to find those responsible and
bring them to justice," Bremer said.
Saad Hamid, 41, a shopkeeper about a block away, said police
caught a car bomber at the same spot six weeks ago before he could
detonate his explosive. Authorities then erected a blast wall at the
end of the street.
The force of the explosion Sunday blew over at least two sections
of the thick concrete barrier. Bricks were hurled to the third floor
of nearby buildings.
Sevan Armin, 33, said a car approached the Baghdad Hotel on the
wrong side of the street. "It was traveling at high speed. The
guards at the gate fired on it. The car hit the concrete blast
barrier and exploded." Armin had a slight head injury.
Sabah Ghulam, 37, was in a car right behind the one that
exploded.
"I was in my car and the car in front of us, a 1990 Toyota
Corolla, suddenly turned into the hotel. I saw the driver. He was
not an Iraqi, he had a lighter complexion. He did not have a beard
and was wearing a hat. We were protected by the wall. A policeman
shot at him four times, and then there was the explosion." He said
the windows in his car were shattered.
Windows were blown out as far as two blocks from the explosion.
The car that blew up had gotten to within about 70 yards of their
apparent target.
There was a heavy U.S. military presence soon surrounding the
blast scene. Sirens wailed as emergency vehicles rushed to the
scene. U.S. helicopters circled overhead.
The blast rattled windows in the Palestine Hotel, home to many
members of the international press corps covering the aftermath of
the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
On Sept. 25, a bomb was placed at the side of a hotel where NBC
television had its living quarters, killing a security guard and
slightly injuring one NBC sound man.
Last month, a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint
outside U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi policeman who
stopped him and wounding 19 people. The driver was trying to enter
the U.N. compound at the Canal Hotel, where a truck bomb Aug. 19
killed 23 people, including the top U.N. envoy to Iraq, Sergio
Vieira de Mello.
On Aug, 29 a car bomb exploded in the holy city of Najaf, killing
Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and more than
80 others. It was the single deadliest attack under the U.S.-led
occupation. On Aug. 7, a bomb attack on the Jordanian Embassy killed
19.
