Victim worked for security firm

2004-01-28 16:53

Baghdad - The South African killed in a blast at a Baghdad hotel was reportedly an employee of a South African security firm.

The security firm is protecting oil installations in north Iraq.

Four South Africans were also injured in the blast according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The powerful bomb, said to have been hidden in an ambulance, destroyed part of the Shahine hotel and a police station in an upmarket central district of Baghdad at dawn, police and the US military said.

The hotel, a base for foreign businessmen and the security firm, was also used by interim Iraqi labour minister Sami Azara al-Majun, said security officials.

The Shi'ite minister quickly blamed the terror attack on members of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party, saying, "I get threats nearly every day".

No extra security measures

Black smoke was seen pouring from the hotel as dazed guests emptied onto the street in their pyjamas, some with their luggage.

Hotel owner Hamud Ismail said he was threatened three months ago. "There are Jews and Americans in your hotel. Get rid of them," said a letter. But he had taken no extra security measures.

The explosion came less than a day after the United Nations announced it was returning staff to Iraq to study the feasibility of swift elections provided the coalition can take adequate measures to assure security.

The coalition immediately welcomed the announcement by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and vowed to provide the security for the team that he requested.

Annan made the decision amid growing support for a leading Shi'ite cleric's campaign for immediate polls rather than coalition insistence on setting up an unelected Iraqi government by June 30.

- AFP