Kawaii
Well-Known Member
Explosion rocks Baghdad hotel
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An "extremely powerful" explosion hit the Baghdad Hotel Sunday, reducing parts of it to rubble and causing the area to erupt into chaos.
It is not clear how many people may have been injured or killed.
Eyewitness said two vehicles drove up to the hotel, and one of them crashed into the concrete barrier surrounding the building, and exploded. It is not clear whether the second vehicle detonated.
Video from the scene showed one car engulfed in fire. The hotel's rubble was on fire, sending clouds of smoke into the Baghdad skyline.
CNN's Harris Whitbeck, who rushed to the scene from four blocks away, saw the rubble burning, and said "it seems like the whole sky has darkened."
The neighborhood is where a lot of Western journalists, contractors, and government officials reside.
U.S. military helicopters circled above, while Iraqi police and U.S. troops were on the scene trying to control the crowd that has gathered. Gunshots were heard, apparently fired to control the crowd.
Whitbeck and other CNN journalists, staying at the Palestine Hotel about four blocks away, felt their rooms shake around 12:50 p.m. (5:50 a.m. EDT).
The blast follows a string of car bombings in Iraq since early August.
• A car bombing at the Jordanian Embassy on August 7 that killed at least 10.
• On August 19, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a veteran U.N. official appointed to the post in May, and 22 others were killed when a bomb-laden cement truck exploded beneath the window of his office in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad.
• On August 29, a massive car bomb claimed the lives of one of Shiite Islam's top clerics and 124 others near a mosque in the Iraqi city of Najaf.
Explosion hits convoy carrying Shiite cleric
Earlier Sunday, an explosion ripped through a convoy carrying a Shiite cleric in central Baghdad, injuring at least four people, eyewitnesses told CNN.
An improvised explosive device was planted in a streetlight in the Karkh district, and damaged three of the cars in Hussein Al-Shami's convoy.
It is not clear if Al-Shami was injured in the attack.
The blast happened around 9:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. ET), witnesses said. It is believed Al-Shami was the target of the attack.
U.S. soldiers were on the scene, inspecting the aftermath of the explosion.
The Coalition Press Information Center said the explosion took place near the Ministry of Religious Affairs, near Baghdad's Medical City, citing reports from the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division.
The Coalition Provisional Authority appointed Al-Shami to a high ranking post in Iraq's Ministry of Religious Affairs, giving him control of the Shiite section of the ministry.
He was exiled by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for his activities in the radical al-Dawa party.
Six held in raids
On Saturday, U.S. troops detained six people in three separate raids near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, according to coalition officials.
Those detained were suspected of manufacturing improvised explosive devices and U.S. forces also confiscated AK-47 assault rifles and one shotgun in the raids, coalition sources said.
The raids were conducted early Saturday in the town of Ca'desseeya.
In another development, at least two Iraqis were wounded Saturday in a grenade attack near the Shiite city of Karbala, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, according to police sources.
Two grenades were thrown at the Iraqis in the village of al-Muhenawia, south of Karbala, which is under the control of the Bulgarian military.
In Karbala on Saturday, thousands of Iraqi Shiites flooded the streets to mark the birthday of the historic 12th Imam -- and to demonstrate in favor of a Shiite cleric's call for the formation of an Islamic state in Iraq.
The city is the burial place of Imam al-Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who died in battle outside Karbala. The 12th Imam was born in 868 and is considered, by Shiites, to be still living, waiting to reappear before the Day of Judgment.
Muqtada al-Sadr said during his Friday sermon in nearby Kufa that he intended to use the birthday, beginning at sundown Saturday, to launch his government and called for "peaceful demonstrations" by those who agree. Thousands of his supporters walked the distance to Karbala for the demonstration.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S.-backed Coalition Provisional Authority or the coalition-appointed Iraq Governing Council.
...And here is the source.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An "extremely powerful" explosion hit the Baghdad Hotel Sunday, reducing parts of it to rubble and causing the area to erupt into chaos.
It is not clear how many people may have been injured or killed.
Eyewitness said two vehicles drove up to the hotel, and one of them crashed into the concrete barrier surrounding the building, and exploded. It is not clear whether the second vehicle detonated.
Video from the scene showed one car engulfed in fire. The hotel's rubble was on fire, sending clouds of smoke into the Baghdad skyline.
CNN's Harris Whitbeck, who rushed to the scene from four blocks away, saw the rubble burning, and said "it seems like the whole sky has darkened."
The neighborhood is where a lot of Western journalists, contractors, and government officials reside.
U.S. military helicopters circled above, while Iraqi police and U.S. troops were on the scene trying to control the crowd that has gathered. Gunshots were heard, apparently fired to control the crowd.
Whitbeck and other CNN journalists, staying at the Palestine Hotel about four blocks away, felt their rooms shake around 12:50 p.m. (5:50 a.m. EDT).
The blast follows a string of car bombings in Iraq since early August.
• A car bombing at the Jordanian Embassy on August 7 that killed at least 10.
• On August 19, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a veteran U.N. official appointed to the post in May, and 22 others were killed when a bomb-laden cement truck exploded beneath the window of his office in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad.
• On August 29, a massive car bomb claimed the lives of one of Shiite Islam's top clerics and 124 others near a mosque in the Iraqi city of Najaf.
Explosion hits convoy carrying Shiite cleric
Earlier Sunday, an explosion ripped through a convoy carrying a Shiite cleric in central Baghdad, injuring at least four people, eyewitnesses told CNN.
An improvised explosive device was planted in a streetlight in the Karkh district, and damaged three of the cars in Hussein Al-Shami's convoy.
It is not clear if Al-Shami was injured in the attack.
The blast happened around 9:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. ET), witnesses said. It is believed Al-Shami was the target of the attack.
U.S. soldiers were on the scene, inspecting the aftermath of the explosion.
The Coalition Press Information Center said the explosion took place near the Ministry of Religious Affairs, near Baghdad's Medical City, citing reports from the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division.
The Coalition Provisional Authority appointed Al-Shami to a high ranking post in Iraq's Ministry of Religious Affairs, giving him control of the Shiite section of the ministry.
He was exiled by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for his activities in the radical al-Dawa party.
Six held in raids
On Saturday, U.S. troops detained six people in three separate raids near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, according to coalition officials.
Those detained were suspected of manufacturing improvised explosive devices and U.S. forces also confiscated AK-47 assault rifles and one shotgun in the raids, coalition sources said.
The raids were conducted early Saturday in the town of Ca'desseeya.
In another development, at least two Iraqis were wounded Saturday in a grenade attack near the Shiite city of Karbala, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, according to police sources.
Two grenades were thrown at the Iraqis in the village of al-Muhenawia, south of Karbala, which is under the control of the Bulgarian military.
In Karbala on Saturday, thousands of Iraqi Shiites flooded the streets to mark the birthday of the historic 12th Imam -- and to demonstrate in favor of a Shiite cleric's call for the formation of an Islamic state in Iraq.
The city is the burial place of Imam al-Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who died in battle outside Karbala. The 12th Imam was born in 868 and is considered, by Shiites, to be still living, waiting to reappear before the Day of Judgment.
Muqtada al-Sadr said during his Friday sermon in nearby Kufa that he intended to use the birthday, beginning at sundown Saturday, to launch his government and called for "peaceful demonstrations" by those who agree. Thousands of his supporters walked the distance to Karbala for the demonstration.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S.-backed Coalition Provisional Authority or the coalition-appointed Iraq Governing Council.
...And here is the source.
now...If i'm not mistaken, Gonz... You said they would welcome the freedom with open arms ...right after we found the stockpiles of WMDs that Saddam had aimed at us...And that they would love us...just like the afgahns do....