11 persons killed in explosion against the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad
Jordan-Iraq, Politics, 8/8/2003

Iraqi medical sources said that the number of victims of the explosion which targeted the Jordanian embassy yesterday morning increased to 11 and 57 injured.

The sources stressed that among the killed are one Iraqi woman, one child and one police man and Jordanian employees at the embassy and that 46 of the wounded are in very critical health conditions.

The explosion took place in a booby trapped car near the embassy and caused large destruction in its headquarters. Eye witnesses said that two explosions took place. The first was minor and resulted from a missile shelling and the second came a little time later believed to be as a result of the booby trapped car.

The explosion which took place at al-Zihour quarters, in al-Ghazaleyah area targeted mostly passersby, workers at the embassy and information desk employees at the embassy. However, the reason behind the explosion are still unclear.

To this effect, the Jordanian minister of information Nabil al-Sharif denounced the explosion which targeted the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and described it as a terrorist and coward act. In a statement to al-Jazeera TV station yesterday, the Jordanian minister said that this action will not prevent Jordan from continuing its support to the march of stability in Iraq.

Meantime the Jordanian military field hospital continued sending Iraqi patients who are in need of surgery operations to the Jordanian hospitals in Amman.

The director of the Jordanian hospital Kamel Bawa'neh said that admitting the patients to the hospitals in Jordan came at the directives of the Jordanian King Abdullah II, who recommended evacuating wounded and difficult conditions to Amman.

Meanwhile, scores of angry Iraqis damaged the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad. They dismantled the Jordanian flag and burnt the pictures of the Jordanian King Abdullah II and his late father King Hussein, according to western news agencies.

The agencies added that a large aggregation of people gathered in front of the embassy and chanted anti- Jordan slogans.

Previous Stories:
  Arab al-Youm: Jordan ready to dispatch forces at the request of the Governing Council   (8/6/2003)
  Washington green-lighted Jordan to receive Saddam's two daughters   (8/2/2003)
  Saddam's two daughters under Jordanian protection   (8/1/2003)

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