August 19, 2003
Photo: Canal Hotel after explosion: A fire burns outside the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, August 19, 2003. A car bomb explosion tore through the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on Tuesday, destroying part of the building, and witnesses said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded. Two casualties were taken away by helicopter and two others by truck, Reuters correspondents on the scene said. (REUTERS/Suhaib Salem)
The Coalition Press Information Center said a car bomb caused the blast and witnesses told Reuters that at least three people were killed.
The blast occurred at the Canal Hotel, home to the United Nations mission in Iraq. U.N. workers lived and worked in the building when international weapons inspectors were scouring Iraq for evidence of weapons of mass destruction before the war began.
"My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," a resident in the area said.
American Black Hawk helicopters could be seen flying toward the scene of the explosion. Black smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air, clearly visible in video shown on American television.
There were reports of significant damage to the buildings. Iraqis said the blast blew out windows as far as a mile away.
U.N. workers told Fox News there were at least 150 workers inside the building, and Reuters quoted U.S. military sources as saying there were scores of casualties from the blast.
Fox News confirmed that U.N. Iraq representative Sergio Vieira de Mello, one of the highest-ranking officials at the United Nations, was injured.
Fox News' Dan Springer, reporting from Baghdad, said one entire corner of the two-story hotel has been blown away. It appeared as if the explosion was centered on the building's lobby.
Emergency workers from a nearby National Spinal Cord Injury Center, which also suffered damage, were going through the rubble, looking for survivors and victims.
"What I'm looking at is a scene of immense devastation," Springer reported.
The U.S. military said at least nine people were wounded as of 9:30 ET.
"I would assume that number would go up as we go through the day," Springer said.
Sgt. Amy Abbott said the 4:30 p.m. blast was caused by a car bomb. She said military ambulances and security forces were at the scene. She said she did not yet have casualty figures and did not know if anyone had been killed.
Photo: Canal Hotel before explosion: An Iraqi police officer walks outside the United Nations headquarters at the al-Canal Hotel in Baghdad in this Sept. 25, 2002. A huge explosion thought to be a car bomb went off at the hotel Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)
A car was seen ablaze outside the collapsed corner of the building. Many injured civilians were walking away from the scene.
The U.S. Army and Iraqi police secured the scene.
Tuesday's explosion seemed to be more powerful than the car bomb that rocked the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad on Aug. 7, which killed at least 11 people and left more than 50 wounded.
The latest attack was the latest in a string of incidents at so-called "soft targets," or lightly guarded civilian and diplomatic facilities.
Oil and water pipelines also came under what is thought to be sabotage attacks this week.
Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, just Tuesday morning was warning against the flood of potential terrorists coming in to Iraq from neighboring countries to boost opposition forces.
U.S. administrators and the military "do believe that there are professional terrorists, foreign regime leaders … coming in from the border of Iraq," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who met with U.S. military leaders in Iraq earlier in the day, told Fox News. "But we cannot cut and run. We must stay here and build the security of this country ... and start helping the people of Iraq recover."
She added: "The escalation of terrorists attacks are of great concern to everyone,"
Other lawmakers agreed the latest bombing is evidence of the threat that still plagues post-regime reconstruction efforts.
"I think what this shows is an increase in the level of org. of the opposition we face," Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told Fox News. "We have to assume a further escalation of violence against coalition forces and allies."
"There seems to me rather stark evidence in the heart of Baghdad that terrorists are afoot, even Al Qaeda afoot, in the provinces of Iraq," added Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told Fox News.
Fox News' Steve Harrigan, David Lee Miller and Dan Springer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95100,00.html