GrantDawg
08-19-2003, 09:18 AM
A big truck bomb, thought to be in a cement mixer.
Car bomb rocks U.N. headquarters in Baghdad; at least 9 hurt
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb exploded in front of the hotel housing the U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, collapsing the front of the building, U.S. military said. The top U.N. official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was among the wounded.
A U.N. driver said he saw Iraqis and foreigners injured in the wreckage of the Canal Hotel, where the U.N. is based. An Associated Press reporter said he could see nine people being carried out of the hotel on stretchers.
Sgt. Amy Abbott said the 4:30 p.m. blast was caused by a car bomb. She said military ambulances and security forces were at the scene. She said she did not yet have casualty figures and did not know if anyone had been killed.
"Sergio Vieira de Mello's office was destroyed and Sergio himself was hurt," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
Eckhard said he didn't know how seriously de Mello was hurt.
The U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone, said dozens were wounded. Eckhard said he couldn't confirm any deaths.
A senior UNICEF official also was seriously wounded in the blast, U.N. officials said.
One wounded man had a yard-long, inch-thick aluminum rod driven into his face just below his right eye. He was able to speak and identified himself as a security consultant for the International Monetary Fund, saying he had just arrived in the country over the weekend.
Nazar Hababa, the U.N. driver, was covered in blood as he recounted seeing victims in the rubble.
"At 4:30 p.m. we heard a big explosion. It was caused by a rocket, said Adnan Al-Jabouri, a second U.N. driver at the hotel.
The force of the blast, which knocked out windows up to a mile away from the scene, destroyed several cars, including one that was on fire.
The U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone, informed U.N. headquarters in New York that a number of people were hurt in the explosion, but no one was killed as far as he knew.
He said the explosion destroyed a significant part of the building, Eckhard said.
Dozens of U.S. Humvees were at the scene and at least two Black Hawk helicopters hovered above. Black smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air.
United Nations weapons inspectors worked out of the hotel during the period before the war.
"My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," a resident in the area around the hotel said.
The United Nations distributes humanitarian aid and is developing programs aimed at boosting Iraq's emerging free press, justice system and monitoring of human rights.
The United States failed to win the backing of the U.N. Security Council before it invaded Iraq on March 20, and since major fighting ended in April, the United States has been reluctant to let the United Nations play a large role in rebuilding the country.
The Canal Hotel operates more as an office building than a hotel. The cafeteria is a popular place for humanitarian workers and journalists to meet.
The three-floor building houses the offices of most U.N. agencies with the exception of UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Before the war, it was home to U.N. weapons inspectors who have hundreds of documents there and a mobile testing lab in the hotel parking lot.
Car bomb rocks U.N. headquarters in Baghdad; at least 9 hurt
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb exploded in front of the hotel housing the U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, collapsing the front of the building, U.S. military said. The top U.N. official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was among the wounded.
A U.N. driver said he saw Iraqis and foreigners injured in the wreckage of the Canal Hotel, where the U.N. is based. An Associated Press reporter said he could see nine people being carried out of the hotel on stretchers.
Sgt. Amy Abbott said the 4:30 p.m. blast was caused by a car bomb. She said military ambulances and security forces were at the scene. She said she did not yet have casualty figures and did not know if anyone had been killed.
"Sergio Vieira de Mello's office was destroyed and Sergio himself was hurt," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
Eckhard said he didn't know how seriously de Mello was hurt.
The U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone, said dozens were wounded. Eckhard said he couldn't confirm any deaths.
A senior UNICEF official also was seriously wounded in the blast, U.N. officials said.
One wounded man had a yard-long, inch-thick aluminum rod driven into his face just below his right eye. He was able to speak and identified himself as a security consultant for the International Monetary Fund, saying he had just arrived in the country over the weekend.
Nazar Hababa, the U.N. driver, was covered in blood as he recounted seeing victims in the rubble.
"At 4:30 p.m. we heard a big explosion. It was caused by a rocket, said Adnan Al-Jabouri, a second U.N. driver at the hotel.
The force of the blast, which knocked out windows up to a mile away from the scene, destroyed several cars, including one that was on fire.
The U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone, informed U.N. headquarters in New York that a number of people were hurt in the explosion, but no one was killed as far as he knew.
He said the explosion destroyed a significant part of the building, Eckhard said.
Dozens of U.S. Humvees were at the scene and at least two Black Hawk helicopters hovered above. Black smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air.
United Nations weapons inspectors worked out of the hotel during the period before the war.
"My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," a resident in the area around the hotel said.
The United Nations distributes humanitarian aid and is developing programs aimed at boosting Iraq's emerging free press, justice system and monitoring of human rights.
The United States failed to win the backing of the U.N. Security Council before it invaded Iraq on March 20, and since major fighting ended in April, the United States has been reluctant to let the United Nations play a large role in rebuilding the country.
The Canal Hotel operates more as an office building than a hotel. The cafeteria is a popular place for humanitarian workers and journalists to meet.
The three-floor building houses the offices of most U.N. agencies with the exception of UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Before the war, it was home to U.N. weapons inspectors who have hundreds of documents there and a mobile testing lab in the hotel parking lot.