Rocket attack targets Baghdad hotels

At least three rockets slammed into the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad early today, causing damage to the buildings that house many US workers and foreign journalists. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

US soldiers and Iraqi police discovered a rocket-launcher attached to a donkey cart with a capacity to fire 30 rockets in nearby Saadoun Street.

Iraqi police 1st Lt Amar Arshad said at least three rockets hit the hotels. Another five rockets sat unfired in the rocket-launcher. The launcher sat atop the green cart disguised as a petrol transport.

One of the rockets left a hole in the wall of the 16th floor of the Palestine Hotel, and a 15th-floor room appeared to have been hit as well. Another impact was on the eighth floor.

“My neighbour’s room was hit pretty bad,” said Steven Akana, 49, a contractor with a US company who is staying on the 15th floor.

Several windows were shattered in the 18-floor building.

There were also broken windows on the top floors of the Sheraton across the street. A lift appeared to have been damaged. It was unclear how many impacts there were at the Sheraton.

The Sheraton once belonged to the US chain, but is operated by Iraqis, like the Palestine, which was formerly part of the Meridian hotel chain.

The hotels are among the best-protected in Baghdad, with several security checkpoints on the approaches, blast barriers on surrounding streets and US armoured personnel carriers stationed outside. They stand in front of Firdaus Square, where Iraqis famously toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein on April 9.

The Palestine Hotel, which housed most foreign journalists in Iraq during the war, was shelled by a US tank on April 8, killing two cameramen, one from Spain and one from Ukraine. The US Army has said the shooting was justified.

Last month, rebels fired a volley of rockets at the al-Rasheed Hotel, just across the river in the so-called Green Zone which houses the US occupation authority. One US soldier was killed and a number of people were wounded in that strike.

Ziyad, a 25-year-old Iraqi man who was staying with his bride Rownaq at the Palestine for their wedding night – an Iraqi tradition – was two doors down from the 15th-floor impact.

“We were sleeping when we heard the sound of a rocket,” he said. “This is our wedding present.”

Witnesses said US soldiers carried a man out on a stretcher. The man was bleeding from his head, and medics had attached an intravenous tube.

Minutes after the attack on the hotels, explosions shook Iraq's oil ministry in Baghdad, witnesses said. Thick black smoke poured from the heavily-guarded compound.

Fire engines moved about the ministry and US soldiers kept journalists away.

Imad Ahmed, a retired civil servant who lives near the ministry, said he heard five explosions.