US military hotel blasted in rocket attack

Six to eight rockets struck the Al Rasheed Hotel, where US military and civilian employees stay, early today.

A spokesman for the military command said there were an ”unknown number of casualties” and a quick reaction force had been dispatched to the scene. US officials declined to comment further.

The luxury hotel is located in an area tightly controlled by the US military on the western side of the Tigris River near the headquarters of the US-led coalition.

Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, who began a three-day tour of Iraq on Friday, was in Baghdad, but his whereabouts were unknown.

The blast sent American soldiers and officials fleeing the building in pyjamas and shorts, witnesses said.

Iraqi security guard Dafer Jawad, 28, said he saw projectiles flying toward the hotel.

“There was a whooshing sound,” he said. “One landed in the front of the hotel. I saw very heavy white smoke in front of the hotel. Many people started rushing across from the hotel into the Convention Centre.”

Some balconies in the mid-level of the hotel appeared damaged and a large hole caused by a rocket was visible on one side of the building.

Several US Army Humvees and at least one armoured personnel carrier were blocking the street leading up to the hotel.

Sgt Pedro Perez, 28, of Orlando, Florida said some of the missiles landed near the front entrance. He said there had been casualties but did not know how many.

The attack followed a warning by US. Officials that ”Islamic extremists” planned to carry out a suicide bombing attack against an unspecified hotel used by Westerners. The warning did not identify the target.

A car bomb on October 12 against the Baghdad Hotel, also used by US officials, killed eight people, including the bomber, but security measures prevented the vehicle from reaching the building before it exploded.

The Al Rasheed, made famous by CNN’s telephone calls under fire and rooftop broadcasts during the 1991 Gulf War, was taken over by the American military when Baghdad fell to US forces in April.

The hotel, which was built and owned by the deposed Iraqi government, was Iraq’s marquee guesthouse. Inaugurated in 1982 for a summit of non-aligned nations, its style remains a cross between 1970s American kitsch and Soviet institutionalism.

The attack came a day after guerrillas fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades at a US Army Black Hawk helicopter after it came down in a field near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, wounding one soldier and causing the craft t explode in flames and spew a column of black smoke.

Yesterday, US military officials reopened a major bridge over the Tigris River to ease transportation in the capital and ended the night-time curfew in effect since April.

Coalition officials took the moves in preparation for the holy month of fasting, Ramadan, which begins tomorrow. The month is marked by night-time festivities.

Iraqi authorities said the steps were taken because of an improved security situation in the capital.