Iraq

Car bomb levels hotel in Baghdad

At least 28 are dead and 45 are wounded, including Americans, when a powerful car bomb touches off an inferno just days before the Iraq war's first anniversary.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A powerful car bomb ripped through a five-story hotel filled with foreign guests Wednesday evening, killing at least 28 people and destroying nearby apartment houses days before the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.

Flames and heavy smoke burst skyward from the Mount Lebanon Hotel, torching nearby homes, offices and shops. Rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble and searched for other victims. At least 45 people, including one American and two British citizens, were injured, according to the U.S. Army.

It was the latest and bloodiest in a wave of recent attacks on foreign civilians, eight of whom had been killed in the previous eight days.

There was no official word on who carried out the attack but a U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Jordanian Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is suspected of playing a key role.

Dazed and wounded people stumbled from the wreckage, marked by a jagged, 20-foot-wide crater. A father cradled his young daughter, who was limp in his arms. Coated in dust, some rescuers dug through the debris with bare hands as uniformed firefighters fought the blaze and ambulance workers stood by with orange stretchers.

"It was a huge boom followed by complete darkness and then the red glow of a fire," said 16-year-old Walid Mohammed Abdel-Maguid, who lives near the hotel. A U.S. soldier a mile away said the blast, which occurred about 8 p.m., felt as if it were next door.

Army Col. Ralph Baker of the 1st Armored Division estimated that the bomb contained 1,000 pounds of explosives. He said the bomb was a mix of plastic explosives and artillery shells. That was the same mixture of explosives used in the Aug. 19 suicide attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people.

Americans, Britons, Egyptians, Arabs as well as other foreigners were staying at the Mount Lebanon Hotel, said Baghdad resident Faleh Kalhan. The hotel traditionally has attracted visiting Arab businessmen and, and among westerners, people on modest budgets working for relief agencies and other organizations with business in Baghdad.

But some residents in the area said they believed guests left the hotel a week ago after its management received threats. If true, many casualties were likely in adjacent buildings.

The blast ignited at least eight cars, one of which was hurled into a store. Some vehicles were little more than mangled piles of metal. The explosion blew bricks, air conditioners, furniture, wires and other debris hundreds of yards from the hotel.

The Mount Lebanon was a so-called soft target because it did not have concrete blast barriers and other security measures that protect offices of the U.S.-led coalition and buildings where Westerners live and work.

The Bush administration offered prayers for the victims but said such attacks would not change U.S. policy.

"Democracy is taking root in Iraq and there is no turning back," said Scott McClellan, White House spokesman. "This is a time of testing, but the terrorists will not prevail."

The attack came just three days before the first anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein. It took place behind Firdaus Square, where Iraqis toppled a bronze statue of Hussein on April 9 with the help of U.S. Marines who had just entered the center of the capital.

After the blast, American forces and Iraqi ambulances hurried to the scene. Dozens of U.S. soldiers in Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles cleared crowds. Earlier, two U.S. soldiers tried to help pull bodies from the wreckage of the hotel, but angry Iraqis pushed them back.

The blast shook the nearby Palestine Hotel, where many foreign contractors and journalists are based. It also damaged the nearby Swan Lake Hotel, home to many foreigners, including several journalists. The bomb left the bureau of Arabic Al-Jazeera satellite television in a shambles.

"All of our offices in this hotel are nearly destroyed. I was typing some information for a story and the windows blew in and covered me," said the bureau's senior editor, Mohammed Abdul Rahim.

Across the street from the Mount Lebanon Hotel, the one-story house of a Christian family of seven was virtually destroyed. The bodies of a man and a woman were pulled from the debris.

The blast startled occupants of the Green Zone, a heavily protected area that houses the headquarters of the U.S.-led occupation across the Tigris river from the hotel.

"We felt the blast here, it was a huge blast," U.S. Army Col. Jill Morgenthaler said. "We're a mile south of that and I thought it was striking next door."

Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, deputy commander of the 1st Armored Division said he did not believe Iraqis linked to former ruling Baath party were behind the attack, saying that they are believed to be focusing attacks on U.S. soldiers.

"We're going after the extremists in Iraq and the extremists coming from outside Iraq," Hertling said. "It's just so frustrating. . . . You take three steps forward and something like this happens and you take one step back."

Also Wednesday, U.S. and Iraqi military forces launched a large operation to weed out insurgents and seize illegal weapons. They used troops, helicopters and armored vehicles to raid a suspected arms market in the capital.

- Information from the New York Times and Washington Post was used in this report.

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