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Man dies in attack on journos
25/09/2003 10:39 - (SA)
Baghdad - A bomb at a hotel in central Baghdad housing crews of the US television network NBC killed a maintenance worker early on Thursday in what police called the first such attack aimed at foreign journalists here.
An NBC soundman was slightly wounded by the explosive device placed next to a generator on the pavement outside the Aike hotel. Witnesses said another person was injured but officials did not confirm this.
The blast, which came just before 07:00 (03:00 GMT), was the third deadly bomb attack in Baghdad this week.
It killed a Somali maintenance man who worked at the three-storey hotel located on the corner of al-Hindi street, one of the main thoroughfares in central Baghdad, said police official Karim Mariush.
David Moodie, the injured NBC employee, said his room was directly above the generator.
"I was asleep and then there was a flash and a bang and the chest of drawers came crashing down," he said outside the hotel, wearing a bloody T-shirt and a bandage on his right arm.
I still have my arms and legs
"I got onto the floor and wrapped a blanket around me but then I realised I was all right, I still had my arms and my legs."
Iraq has been hit by a series of bomb attacks since US forces deposed Saddam Hussein in April.
On Monday this week the UN headquarters here was hit by a suicide bomber in an attack that killed an Iraqi security guard and wounded 17 people. In late August a car bomb killed 22 people at the same building.
On Wednesday a roadside bomb killed one and wounded 21 others in Baghdad.
But Police Lieutenant Colonel Kareen Salman said Thursday's blast was the "first (bomb) attack targeting foreign (journalists)."
"We have the Facilities Protection Service to protect them but they (the hotel) did not ask for them," Salman said.
A British journalist was killed by unknown assailants outside Iraq's national museum in Baghdad, but there have been no reports of bomb attacks targeting media here.
Many foreign journalists in Baghdad live and work from the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, which are heavily fortified and protected by US tanks and soldiers.
But many others stay in smaller hotels or villas around the city that are protected only by hotel staff or private security companies.
NBC employed a company called Centurion as security advisors for their team in Iraq, said Moodie, adding however that "they are our field operatives, they come out on assignments with us, they don't provide security in the hotel."
The Aike hotel had two nightwatchmen on duty at the time of the blast, he said.
There was no word on who set off the blast that damaged the generator and shattered windows at the hotel and nearby buildings. Occupants were evacuated and the area was patrolled by Iraqi police and US soldiers.
Surprised
Moodie, a 44-year-old Canadian, had a cut on his arm from the blast, and said no other employee of the network was hurt.
The bomb at the hotel surprised Moodie, who said that "we were fairly anonymous here."
Locals however said everyone knew there were foreign journalists in the hotel, which is situated in the wealthy Arasat area of the capital.
"You can see them coming and going with their cameras and their big cars," said waiter Hussein Naji of the nearby Golden Fingers restaurant.
Asked if NBC would pull out, Moodie said that was up to the London offices of the network and added: "I'll get some stitches and probably stay."
"You know when you do this job you're coming to a hostile environment, you can't think about the danger all the time," he said.
- AFP
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