Winks Blog

17 killed, 10 Injured at Palestine Hotel

In further violence today,

Three massive car bombs exploded at the Palestine hotel. The Palestine hotel houses many international press.

Dramatic television video showed one of the bombers driving a cement truck through the concrete blast walls that guard the hotel, then blowing up his vehicle.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the attack _ which appeared to be well-planned _ was "very clear" effort to take over the hotel and take foreign and Arab journalists as hostages.

The Palestine hotel has been the target for many attacks in the past. It is a symbolic hotel. It is a great place to target for instant news coverage. The blast was captured with exceptional clarity by a news camera. A huge flash occured and plumes of black and grey smoke spewed above. The visual impact made from this blast is great. It elminates the normal sterilazation of the attacks. Normally we just see a cleaned up version of the aftermath of an attack. Charred cars, blown apart buildings, people crying. This video allows us to finally see the magnitude of a large scale attack.

It is believed that 4 -5 Iraqi security forces were killed. A total of 17 were killed and 10 were injured.

In other violence:
_ The military said the Marine who was killed had been assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) and was hit by small arms fire in Ramadi. The death raised to at least 1,997 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
_ A suicide car bomber killed two Iraqis and wounded five Monday in an attack on a police patrol in the northeastern Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab, where insurgents had kidnapped and murdered a defense lawyer in Saddam's trial last week, said police Lt. Malik Sultan.
_ Insurgents also opened fire on an Iraqi army checkpoint in western Baghdad, killing a soldier and a girl who was standing in front of her nearby house, said police 1st. Lt. Thaeir Mahmod.
_ A drive-by shooting killed one policeman and two others were wounded by a roadside bomb, authorities said.
_ Another roadside bomb exploded near a car carrying Ibrahim Zangana, a senior member of Iraq's Kurdish Democratic Party, seriously wounding him and killing one of his bodyguards, in Kirkuk, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir.
_ A drive-by shooting in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, killed a policeman.
_ The corpses of the eight Iraqis _ five men and three women _ also were found in three different areas of Baghdad on Monday, police said. All of them apparently had been kidnapped, tied up or handcuffed, and shot to death.

I will continue to report as more news comes in.

posted by Wink @ 8:33 AM