Double suicide operation in a hotel in Baghdad kills 6 injures scores
Baghdad was shaken yesterday by a double suicide bombing by two booby trapped cars targeting a hotel inhabited by members of the CIA and American contractors as well as members of the Iraqi Interim Council.
The operation resulted in killing 6 people and scores were reported wounded, while resistance operations continued against the US army and three Americans were injured in Tikrit and against the oil pipelines which have been attacked three times during the two past days.
The blowing up of the Baghdad hotel came four days after a similar explosion in a booby trapped car targeting a headquarters for the Iraqi police in al-Sader city in Baghdad that resulted in killing 10 persons.
Members of the Iraqi governing council Muqafak al-Rubei, who lives in the hotel said he had slight wounds in his hand. An American army officer said that the 6 killed persons as well as the suiciders are all Iraqis. Officials at the Canadian hospital in Baghdad said they are treating 32 wounded, four of them in critical health conditions, and the occupation army announced that three American soldiers were hit in the explosion.
Baghdad hotel is situated in a small branch street of the commercial al-Sadoun street and it is surrounded by cement blocks. An eye witness said that the two booby trapped cars took al-Sadoun street at high speed and one of them suddenly diverted towards the cement blocks. One witness said "the car was directly in front of us, Toyota Corolla,, 1990 model. It moved quickly towards the hotel. One police man fired 4 bullets at it and then the explosion took place." He added that he saw the suicider who was in the car whom he had described as of a white complexion, noting he seemed to bo not Iraqi.
The explosion resulted in destroying the windows of the hotel and part of the wall surrounding it, including windows of Palestine hotel were destroyed which is inhabited by American military officials as well as a large number of foreign journalists.