- BAGHDAD, Iraq - Attackers
fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the Dutch Embassy in Iraq on Friday,
hitting the roof with one and setting it on fire. The blaze was quickly
extinguished, and there were no injuries.
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- Security guards and U.S. soldiers said the projectile
detonated on the roof after the embassy had closed for the day. Another
missed the building, and two other launchers were found in the garden behind
the embassy, guards said.
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- Guards fired at the attackers' vehicle as they fled,
said guard Karim al-Zubaidi.
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- Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Martine de Haan said
there were no injuries.
-
- The blast resounded through Baghdad, and a U.S. quick
reaction force from the 1st Armored Division was sent to the scene, the
U.S. command said. Earlier reports said the projectile was a rocket, but
the military said later it was a rocket-propelled grenade.
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- "We saw the light of the fire on the roof, and the
firefighters came to the scene and put out the fire on the roof,"
said 18-year-old Fadi Ghassan, who lives near the embassy. He said he heard
two explosions.
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- The Netherlands has about 1,100 troops in Iraq.
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- The Dutch Embassy staff was pulled out of Baghdad before
the invasion of Iraq in March, but they returned in August. In October
the government again withdrew most of the staff after an attack on the
United Nations' Baghdad headquarters and other bombings.
-
- The embassy is now conducting most of its business out
of Amman, the capital of neighboring Jordan.
-
- Only five Dutch employees are manning the embassy. Four
were in Baghdad Friday, but none was in the building at the time of the
attack, the Dutch foreign ministry said.
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broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
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