Three L.A. Times Reporters Injured in Blast

December 31, 2003
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb ripped through a crowded restaurant hosting a New Year's Eve party in the Iraqi capital, killing five Iraqis and wounding 24 others.

The nighttime attack came amid tightened security in Baghdad as military officials expected insurgent attacks. Sirens wailed and helicopters buzzed overhead as ambulances and U.S. soldiers converged after the explosion on the Nabil restaurant, a popular spot with foreigners that had advertised a New Year's Eve party with live music and belly dancing.

Three reporters from the Los Angeles Times, and four local staff members suffered injuries that appeared minor, said Dean Baquet, the Times' managing editor. The reporters injured in the blast were Chris Kraul, Tracy Wilkinson and Ann Simmons.

Five Iraqis were killed, according to Lt. Gen. Ahmed Kadhem, deputy Iraqi interior minister and Baghdad chief of police. Several cars outside the restaurant were wrecked and in flames. Gunfire was heard after the explosion, which apparently left a large crater on a side street near the building.

"There was an explosion. The glass came flying. Everything else blew up. People were blown apart," said Basam Sarhan, a 25-year-old baker. He had been working in the kitchen at the back of the restaurant, near where the bomb hit.

Nabil Hanna, owner of the restaurant, said 50 people had booked for the party, including about a dozen foreigners, though Hanna was not at the restaurant at the time of the blast. Sarhan said there were about 25 people in the restaurant, including three or four foreigners.

Police Brig. Hamid Alyasiry, who is in charge of Karrada, an upscale shopping and restaurant district where the blast occurred, confirmed that it was a car bomb.

"The people who are carrying out such attacks do not discriminate about the place," Alyasiry said. "They want to frighten everyone to create terror."

"It was a car bomb. It went off in front of us. It was very powerful," a young boy told Associated Press Television News. He did not give his name.

Blood streaming down his face, a man named Khalil said: "I don't know what it was, whether it was a rocket or a bomb. Why did they have to do it to us?"

One witness, Ahmed Hassanain, said a white Toyota Corolla car drove by the area five or six times before the bombing. The last time it passed, he said, the guard at the restaurant shot at it. It drove away. Two minutes later, there was an explosion. He said he didn't know if it was the Corolla that blew up.

"These people are terrorists," Hassanain said. "Nobody here supports them."

Outside the restaurant, a young man and woman wept and hugged each other. The woman had blood on her face and shoulders. She said they were a family of six having New Year's dinner in the building next door when the blast ripped away the side wall. She said her uncle was taken to a hospital.

Inside Nabil, big round tables set for dinner were covered with food. A bottle of White Horse scotch was still standing but with the neck blown off.

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police had stepped up security in Baghdad today, erecting more razor wire and checkpoints in key areas. Military officials have reported the possibility of attacks by insurgents over the holiday period.

Earlier, a car bomb exploded as a U.S. convoy passed on a Baghdad street full of shops, destroying a Humvee, Iraqi police Sgt. Thabet Talib said. An 8-year-old Iraqi boy was killed and 21 other people were wounded, including five U.S. soldiers and five Iraqi civil defense personnel, authorities said.

Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, said it was not clear what kind of bomb caused the blast.

Later in the evening, a bomb hidden in shrubs outside a separate restaurant in Baghdad exploded as a U.S. military convoy passed, wounding three American soldiers and three Iraqi civilians.

Times staff writer Daryl Strickland and Associated Press contributed to this report.

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