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Scores killed in Iraq
12/10/2003 12:58 - (SA)
Baghdad, Iraq - A huge explosion believed to have been caused by a car bomb rocked central Baghdad on Sunday near the Baghdad Hotel, which is thought to be a headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency in the Iraqi capital.
Sky News reported on Sunday that at least 10 people died in the explosion. Other reports say seven people died.
Bystander Hamid Rahim, 22, said he saw about a half dozen injured taken away in police cars.
Sevan Armin, 33, said a car approched the Baghdad Hotel on the wrong side of the street. "It was traveling at high speed. The guards at the gate fired on it. The car hit the concrete blast barrier and exploded." Armin had a slight head injury.
Sabah Ulam, 37, was in a car right behind the one or two that exploded.
"I was in my car and the car in front of us, a 1990 Toyota Corolla, suddenly turned into the hotel. I saw the driver. He was not an Iraqi, he had a lighter complexion. He did not have a beard and was wearing a hat. We were protected by the wall. A policeman shot at him four times, and then there was the explosion." He said the windows in his car were shattered.
Rahim said two cars tried to enter a sidestreet leading from Saadoun Street to the Baghdad Hotel, but both exploded. It was unclear how many people had been killed or injured.
He and hotel co-worker Karim Abdel al-Hussein, 23, both said two cars approached the barricaded street at high speed and one or both got behind the sidestreet barricade. They believe both exploded before reaching the hotel.
Sirens could heard as emergency vehicles rushed to the scene. US helicopters circled overhead. US soldiers in Humvees were at the site.
The blast rattled windows in the Palestine Hotel, home to many members of the international press corps covering the aftermath of the US-led war in Iraq.
- AP
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