Journalists' hotel in Baghdad attacked (AP) Updated: 2005-10-25 08:43 Casualty reports varied widely. The U.S. military said six civilians were
killed and 15 wounded, but al-Rubaie said at least 20 were killed and 40
wounded, mainly passers-by on the street. Kamal said four or five police
officers were among the dead. Two AP employees and three other journalists
inside the hotel suffered minor injuries.
No American troops were wounded, the military said. A U.S. Bradley Fighting
Vehicle parked inside the compound was destroyed in the blast, but no one was
inside at the time. But the toll among American service members killed in the
Iraq war reached 1,997 with the announcement of a Marine killed Sunday during
fighting in western Iraq.
Since the beginning of 2005, at least 465 vehicle bombings, including suicide
car bombs and vehicles exploded by remote detonations, have killed at least
2,250 people in Iraq.
Security still photos showed a clear attempt to attack the hotel on Monday.
The assault began when at 5:21 p.m. a white car drove up to the concrete
blast wall that separates the hotel complex from Firdous Square, where a giant
statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down after U.S. troops captured Baghdad on
April 9, 2003.
Associated Press correspondent Bob Reid
reports on the phone as security advisors secure a stairway at the
Palestine hotel in Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 24, 2005.
[AP] | That vehicle exploded, blasting out a section of the wall.
Two minutes later and on the opposite side of the square, a second car blew
up next to the mosque. The U.S. military said it appeared the car tried to aim
for the breach in the blast wall but was stopped by Iraqi security forces near
the mosque, and detonated.
Then, one minute later, the cement truck drove through the breach and
appeared to get about 15 to 20 feet inside the compound when it suddenly
stopped. It repeatedly drove short distances back and forth, as if stuck on
something, as gunfire broke out, according to the still photos and Associated
Press Television News footage. Then it exploded in a huge yellow ball of fire
and smoke.
The U.S. military said an American soldier fired on the
cement truck as it tried to move through the breached wall. The military
speculated that the reason for the truck's rocking back and forth was that it
may have been stuck on debris from the first blast or perhaps because small arms
fire had flattened its tires, damaged its engine or wounded the driver.
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