Yeah life is really a lot better in Iraq
BAGHDAD — An apparent car bomb exploded Wednesday night outside a central Baghdad hotel, killing at least 27 and injuring at least 41 just two days before the anniversary of the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.
Heavy smoke rose behind a central square from the area of the blast. Trees were on fire, and flames jumped to nearby buildings. Several cars were destroyed. Ambulances and American soldiers raced to the scene.
The blast carved out a huge crater around 20 feet across and 10 feet deep in the road outside the hotel. There were reports that Americans and Brits were among the hotel's guests (Video: Blast strikes Baghdad hotel).
"I heard the explosion and I ran down the street, and saw many, many people killed. There were children dead," said Raad Abdul Karim, 30.
Karim said the neighborhood was populated by Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds. "They are ordinary families," he said. "I don't know why this happened."
"It has to be a car bomb. No rocket could cause that amount of damage," said Pfc. Heath Balick of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division, which is responsible for security in Baghdad.
But several residents said they believed a rocket caused the destruction.
"We saw the tail of a rocket, then we saw a big flash and heard a big boom," said bystander Hashim al-Musawi.
Firemen battled the raging flames and young men pulled bodies from the rubble in the crowded neighborhood with a hotel and hospital nearby.
The explosion occurred behind Firdaus Square, where a bronze statue of Saddam Hussein was felled April 9 with the help of U.S. Marines who had just entered the center of the Iraqi capital.
"This is a time of testing, but the terrorists will not prevail," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. We will meet this test."
"Our determiniation is unshakable," Vice President Dick Cheney said at an address in Washington. "We will stand with the people of Iraq as they build a government based on democracy, tolerance and freedom."
The explosion came as U.S. and Iraqi military forces launched a large operation Wednesday to weed out insurgents and seize illegal weapons, with troops, helicopters and armored vehicles raiding a suspected arms market in the capital. (Related video: Forces raid arms market)
It also came the same day the Iraqi Governing Council asked the United Nations for help putting together a new government, a council spokesman said.
The council requested that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan send back a U.N. team to help organize a government that will take over from the U.S.-led coalition June 30, council spokesman Hamid al-Kafaai told The Associated Press.
The letter sent by council president Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum, a Shiite cleric, also requested technical assistance in preparation for a general election due by the end of January 2005.
Wednesday's raid on the suspected arms market came during a week in which gunmen, in two separate attacks, killed two Europeans and four American missionaries working on water projects. The six killings suggest the insurgents are going after civilians to undermine reconstruction efforts, even as the frequency of attacks on U.S. troops has decreased.
The operation that began Wednesday — called "Iron Promise" — was expected to involve thousands of U.S. troops from the Fort Hood, Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division, which has recently arrived in Iraq, and the outgoing Germany-based 1st Armored Division. Scores of Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers were also involved.
In the first raid, about 250 troops from the armored division's 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment as well as 250 Iraqi soldiers fanned out across the sprawling 20th Street Market, in the city's Al-Bayaa district, which sells everything from vegetables to used car parts.
In one car repair shop, U.S. troops found a pair of rocket-propelled grenade launchers and burlap sacks full of grenades. They arrested three men.
Some stores are suspected of supplying weapons to the rebels, said the raid's commander, Lt. Col. Chuck Williams, 40, from Sterling, Va. He said the market assault was the start of a citywide crackdown on the guerrillas.
"There is a lot of pressure everywhere. It is all over town. The big things we are looking for is people moving weapons, IED (improvised explosive device) materials and explosives and ammunition. Our soldiers are looking to deter or discover this activity. We want to shut it off," he said.
In the latest example, a homemade bomb exploded in central Baghdad Wednesday, wounding a U.S. soldier and two Iraqi security personnel as they patrolled the area, U.S. Army Col. Peter Jones said.
Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of 1st Armored, had said the operation would be timed to take advantage of the huge numbers of U.S. troops in Baghdad at the moment. Dempsey has some 45,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces at his disposal.
With helicopters hovering overhead, forces in Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees circled the market to prevent rebels from escaping. Troops then went store to store searching for weapons and guerrilla suspects. Few residents criticized the search, and the mood was relaxed.
"There are so many places to run and hide. That's why we have to lock it down. We could easily spend a few days doing this. But we basically just want the bad guys to know that we are still here," said Maj. Gregg Softy, 38, of Hyde Park, N.Y.
Also Wednesday, insurgents used dynamite to attack an overpass on the main highway leading from Baghdad to Jordan, causing it to partly collapse and block one side of the road, witnesses said.
The highway is regularly used by U.S. military convoys and allows them to avoid the adjacent service road that runs through Fallujah and Ramadi, two cities in the so-called Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of anti-coalition activity. U.S. troops come under repeated attacks whenever they pass through the two cities.
In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi soldier was killed and three wounded when an explosive device blew up next to their vehicle as they were escorting an oil tanker truck, a Mosul police officer said. Three suspects were arrested.
A U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle overturned in central Iraq on Wednesday, killing one 1st Infantry Division soldier and injuring two, a U.S. official said.
Contributing: The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse
BAGHDAD — An apparent car bomb exploded Wednesday night outside a central Baghdad hotel, killing at least 27 and injuring at least 41 just two days before the anniversary of the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.
Heavy smoke rose behind a central square from the area of the blast. Trees were on fire, and flames jumped to nearby buildings. Several cars were destroyed. Ambulances and American soldiers raced to the scene.
The blast carved out a huge crater around 20 feet across and 10 feet deep in the road outside the hotel. There were reports that Americans and Brits were among the hotel's guests (Video: Blast strikes Baghdad hotel).
"I heard the explosion and I ran down the street, and saw many, many people killed. There were children dead," said Raad Abdul Karim, 30.
Karim said the neighborhood was populated by Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds. "They are ordinary families," he said. "I don't know why this happened."
"It has to be a car bomb. No rocket could cause that amount of damage," said Pfc. Heath Balick of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division, which is responsible for security in Baghdad.
But several residents said they believed a rocket caused the destruction.
"We saw the tail of a rocket, then we saw a big flash and heard a big boom," said bystander Hashim al-Musawi.
Firemen battled the raging flames and young men pulled bodies from the rubble in the crowded neighborhood with a hotel and hospital nearby.
The explosion occurred behind Firdaus Square, where a bronze statue of Saddam Hussein was felled April 9 with the help of U.S. Marines who had just entered the center of the Iraqi capital.
"This is a time of testing, but the terrorists will not prevail," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. We will meet this test."
"Our determiniation is unshakable," Vice President Dick Cheney said at an address in Washington. "We will stand with the people of Iraq as they build a government based on democracy, tolerance and freedom."
The explosion came as U.S. and Iraqi military forces launched a large operation Wednesday to weed out insurgents and seize illegal weapons, with troops, helicopters and armored vehicles raiding a suspected arms market in the capital. (Related video: Forces raid arms market)
It also came the same day the Iraqi Governing Council asked the United Nations for help putting together a new government, a council spokesman said.
The council requested that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan send back a U.N. team to help organize a government that will take over from the U.S.-led coalition June 30, council spokesman Hamid al-Kafaai told The Associated Press.
The letter sent by council president Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum, a Shiite cleric, also requested technical assistance in preparation for a general election due by the end of January 2005.
Wednesday's raid on the suspected arms market came during a week in which gunmen, in two separate attacks, killed two Europeans and four American missionaries working on water projects. The six killings suggest the insurgents are going after civilians to undermine reconstruction efforts, even as the frequency of attacks on U.S. troops has decreased.
The operation that began Wednesday — called "Iron Promise" — was expected to involve thousands of U.S. troops from the Fort Hood, Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division, which has recently arrived in Iraq, and the outgoing Germany-based 1st Armored Division. Scores of Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers were also involved.
In the first raid, about 250 troops from the armored division's 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment as well as 250 Iraqi soldiers fanned out across the sprawling 20th Street Market, in the city's Al-Bayaa district, which sells everything from vegetables to used car parts.
In one car repair shop, U.S. troops found a pair of rocket-propelled grenade launchers and burlap sacks full of grenades. They arrested three men.
Some stores are suspected of supplying weapons to the rebels, said the raid's commander, Lt. Col. Chuck Williams, 40, from Sterling, Va. He said the market assault was the start of a citywide crackdown on the guerrillas.
"There is a lot of pressure everywhere. It is all over town. The big things we are looking for is people moving weapons, IED (improvised explosive device) materials and explosives and ammunition. Our soldiers are looking to deter or discover this activity. We want to shut it off," he said.
In the latest example, a homemade bomb exploded in central Baghdad Wednesday, wounding a U.S. soldier and two Iraqi security personnel as they patrolled the area, U.S. Army Col. Peter Jones said.
Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of 1st Armored, had said the operation would be timed to take advantage of the huge numbers of U.S. troops in Baghdad at the moment. Dempsey has some 45,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces at his disposal.
With helicopters hovering overhead, forces in Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees circled the market to prevent rebels from escaping. Troops then went store to store searching for weapons and guerrilla suspects. Few residents criticized the search, and the mood was relaxed.
"There are so many places to run and hide. That's why we have to lock it down. We could easily spend a few days doing this. But we basically just want the bad guys to know that we are still here," said Maj. Gregg Softy, 38, of Hyde Park, N.Y.
Also Wednesday, insurgents used dynamite to attack an overpass on the main highway leading from Baghdad to Jordan, causing it to partly collapse and block one side of the road, witnesses said.
The highway is regularly used by U.S. military convoys and allows them to avoid the adjacent service road that runs through Fallujah and Ramadi, two cities in the so-called Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of anti-coalition activity. U.S. troops come under repeated attacks whenever they pass through the two cities.
In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi soldier was killed and three wounded when an explosive device blew up next to their vehicle as they were escorting an oil tanker truck, a Mosul police officer said. Three suspects were arrested.
A U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle overturned in central Iraq on Wednesday, killing one 1st Infantry Division soldier and injuring two, a U.S. official said.
Contributing: The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse
