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Wolfowitz escapes attack
26/10/2003 09:05 - (SA)
Baghdad - One American may have been killed and several people were wounded when rockets hit a Baghdad hotel early Sunday, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a press conference shortly after escaping the attack.
"There may be one American dead", Wolfowitz said after making a short statement, adding that there had been "several injured", but he said the report had not been confirmed.
An official of the US-led coalition said earlier that six to eight heavy rockets hit the landmark Rashid hotel in Baghdad, home to US government personnel.
"Six to eight rockets hit the Rashid hotel at 06:10. The incident is under investigation," a military spokesperson added.
The hotel is in an area sealed off with heavy security inside the main centre of operation of the US-led coalition ruling Iraq.
Ahmad Ismail, an employee at the centre, said that his "boss who was inside the hotel at the time of the attack saw blood on the stairs."
"He said that some people were badly injured, but no one was killed," he told AFP at the entrance of the compound, which is sealed off with heavy security inside the centre of operations of the coalition ruling Iraq.
The compound was completely sealed off, even to employees, after the attack, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.
An Arabic television channel showed footage of two impacts, one on the side of the building and another on one of the facades where windows appeared shattered.
Wolfowitz expressed his sympathy with the families of those injured and said the United States would be unrelenting in the pursuit of the "criminals" responsible.
He described such attacks as "the desperate acts of a dying regime of criminals" but could not guarantee the Rashid hotel could be fully protected against them.
On Saturday, the United States warned that Islamic extremists were plotting an attack, possibly a suicide car bombing, against a hotel in the Karrada neighbourhood that is frequented by westerners.
Exact details of the plot or the targeted hotel were not clear but the Rashid is in one of three districts carrying the name Karrada.
On September 27, the Rashid hotel was hit by three homemade rockets that left no casualties and only minor damage.
Although its physical impact was minimal, that attack made headlines because it targeted a heavily fortified center of US activity since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in April.
The Rashid hotel which housed foreign journalists, diplomats and officials during the Saddam regime was famous for a floor mosaic bearing the face of former US President George Bush.
The mosaic, set up at the entrance for people to step on after Bush senior led a 1991 Gulf War against the Saddam regime, was completely removed by US troops upon their April 9 entrance into Baghdad.
Sunday's attack came as Iraqis, like Muslims all over the world, prepared to begin the holy month of Ramadan.
- AFP
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