IRAQ Bombers strike Palestine Hotel

The U.S. military said six civilians were killed and 15 wounded.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Suicide bombers including one in a cement truck packed with explosives launched a dramatic attack Monday against the Palestine Hotel, where many foreign journalists are based, sending up a giant cloud of smoke and debris over central Baghdad. American troops and journalists escaped without serious injury but at least a half-dozen passers-by were killed.
The deafening attack triggered confusion and panic throughout the hotel, and sent cars swerving wildly on a roundabout to escape the blasts. Inside the 19-story hotel, the force of the blasts shattered glass, tore pictures off walls and brought down light fixtures and ceilings.
The cement truck was the last of three vehicles trying to break through the wall outside the hotel. The first car drove up to the wall and exploded, blasting out a section of the concrete. According to the U.S. military, the second car was headed for the fresh breach in the wall but exploded near the 14th Ramadan Mosque when it was engaged by civilian security forces.
Within minutes, the truck made it through the breach but apparently became stuck on a road between the Palestine and the neighboring Sheraton hotel. The truck rocked back and forth and then blew up after a U.S. soldier opened fire on it. Had the truck traveled 20 or 30 yards farther and blown up at the hotel entrance, it could have killed many people inside the Palestine.
The attack happened at dusk just as Iraqis would have been breaking the daylong fast they observe during the holy month of Ramadan and eating their first meal, called Iftar. It could have been an effort to catch Iraqi security forces at a vulnerable moment when they might have been less attentive.
Theories
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the attack -- which appeared well planned -- was a "very clear" effort to take over the hotel and grab foreign and Arab journalists as hostages. He offered no evidence to support the claim.
Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal disputed the kidnapping theory.
"There is no evidence to support this," Kamal said. "This is just an unlikely assumption. If that were the case, then there would have been gunmen with the suicide bombers. There were no gunmen."
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.
When it began
The assault began at 5:21 p.m. when 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.
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.