Suicide bombing will handicap UN operations in Iraq

UN operations in Iraq “will be handicapped considerably” following the second suicide bombing attack on its Baghdad headquarters, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said tonight.

“Shocked and distressed” Annan spoke not long after a suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint outside the UN compound at the Canal Hotel, killing an Iraqi policeman and himself.

Nineteen people, including two UN workers, were wounded. A UN official said six people had not been accounted for.

The bomber was trying to get into the compound where a massive truck bomb a month ago killed 22 people, including top UN envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Annan said the United Nations was assessing the situation.

“There is a meeting taking place right now, reviewing the situation in light of what has happened, and we will decide as we move forward what our posture should be,” he said.

”We are assessing the situation to determine what happened, who did it, and taking further measures to protect our installations.”

The bombing came on the eve of world leaders gathering in New York for the annual UN General Assembly ministerial meeting, at which the instability and continuing violence following the US led war on Iraq were expected to be a major issue.

Annan said security is critical.

“We need a secure environment to be able to operate, and we have been assessing the situation on a daily basis to determine if there are improvements in the situation,” he said.

“We will go forward, but of course if it continues to deteriorate then our operations will be handicapped considerably.”

In Baghdad, authorities identified the dead policeman as 23-year-old Salam Mohammed.

The suicide bomber, his body wrapped in explosives and his car filled with 50 pounds of TNT, blew himself up after police had stopped him at a checkpoint and were inspecting his car.

The detached arm of a blast victim lay more than 100 yards away and the car’s bonnet was blown 200 yards.

Praising new security arrangements around the hotel, a US officer at the scene credited the Iraq police with preventing an even greater tragedy.

Captain Sean Kirley said the Iraq police had a warning of the attack shortly before it happened. He would not elaborate.

Iraqi police Sergeant Hassan al-Saadi, among the first on the scene, said a grey Opel with Baghdad licence plates approached the entrance to the car park.

“A guard went to search the car, opened the boot and the car exploded, killing him and the driver. When I arrived, there was fire and smoke, even the guard’s body was ablaze,” he said.