|
Rockets hit Baghdad hotel
26/10/2003 07:33 - (SA)
Baghdad, Iraq - Six to eight rockets struck the Al Rasheed Hotel early Sunday, where US military and civilian employees stay, the US military said.
A spokesperson for the military command said there were an "unknown number of casualties" and a quick reaction force had been dispatched to the scene. US officials declined further comment.
The luxury hotel is located in an area tightly controlled by the US military on the western side of the Tigris River near the headquarters of the Us-led coalition.
Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, who began a three-day tour of Iraq on Friday, was in Baghdad, but his whereabouts were unknown.
Some balconies in the mid-level of the hotel appeared damaged and a large hole caused by a rocket was visible on one side of the building.
Several US Army Humvees and at least one armoured personnel carrier were blocking the street leading up to the hotel.
The Al Rasheed, made famous by CNN's telephone calls under fire and rooftop broadcasts during the 1991 Gulf War, was taken over by the American military when Baghdad fell to US forces in April.
The hotel, which was built and owned by the deposed Iraqi government, was Iraq's marquee guesthouse. Inaugurated in 1982 for a summit of nonaligned nations, its style remains a cross between 1970s American kitsch and Soviet institutionalism.
The attack came a day after guerrillas fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades at a US Army Black Hawk helicopter after it came down in a field near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, wounding one soldier and causing the craft to explode in flames and spew a column of black smoke.
Also on Saturday, US military officials reopened a major bridge over the Tigris River to ease transportation in the capital and ended the nighttime curfew in effect since April.
Coalition officials took the moves in preparation for the holy month of fasting, Ramadan, which begins here on Monday. The month is marked by nighttime festivities.
Iraqi authorities said the steps were taken because of an improved security situation in the capital.
- AP
|
News
