- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Rockets
blasted the Iraqi oil ministry and two central Baghdad hotels used by businessmen
and journalists on Friday, wounding several people, military officials
and witnesses said.
-
- The attackers concealed their rocket launchers on donkey
carts.
-
- Flames and smoke poured from the fourth floor of the
oil ministry building which was hit by at least two rockets, the U.S. military
said.
-
- Guests evacuated the Sheraton and Palestine hotels, located
in a fortified compound near the Tigris river, after they were hit.
-
- A hotel manager said at least one person had been seriously
wounded and witnesses at the hotels said they had seen several people with
at least light wounds.
-
- "There was one person badly injured. I saw him taken
away," said Loay Yunnis, general manager of the Palestine Hotel. "There
was blood all over. He was badly injured."
-
- A senior U.S. army officer said attackers had used rocket
launchers hidden under agricultural goods in both assaults.
-
- "We do have leads and are pursuing them," Colonel
Peter Mansoor of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said at the scene
of the oil ministry attack.
-
- He said the fire at the ministry was under control. A
U.S. military spokesman said there were no reports of casualties from that
attack.
-
- A Reuters reporter close to the hotels about an hour
after the blasts said a cart was lying on its side and he could still see
several rockets lying on the ground.
-
- The Palestine Hotel appeared to have been hit around
the 16th or 17th floor, a Reuters witness surveyeing the damage said. At
least two holes were punched in the Sheraton -- one in a glass lift shaft,
the other in a window, witnesses said.
-
- "We saw a big flash, there was just one big bang
and then lots of crashing glass," said Dihya'a Salem, a manager at
the Sheraton. "There was screaming as everyone left their rooms."
-
- The Sheraton still uses the name of the luxury hotel
chain although it is no longer part of it. The two hotels are guarded round
the clock and surrounded by concrete walls.
-
- Few people were in the ministry building, as it was attacked
early in the morning and on a Friday, the Muslim day of rest.
-
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-
- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=386860
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