Top US official escapes rocket attack on Baghdad hotel

IN a daring strike, anti-American forces unleashed a barrage of rockets yesterday against the Al Rasheed Hotel, a symbol of the US presence, where visiting Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying.

Mr Wolfowitz escaped, but a US soldier was killed and 15 people were wounded.

Scores of American officials living in the hotel fled in pyjamas and shorts after the 6.10am assault, which apparently used a makeshift rocket battery on a timer that had been wheeled into a nearby park. More than a half-dozen holes pockmarked the hotel’s concrete facade and windows were shattered in two dozen rooms.