Reports of 11 dead in hotel attacks

Two enormous bombs, one of them a cement-mixing truck packed with explosives, blew up outside Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel – home to many foreign journalists in Iraq – wounding at least six people and causing considerable damage this afternoon.

Arab satellite television networks said 11 people were killed in the vicinity of the bombs.

Associated Press Television News pictures showed the cement mixer exploding in a huge ball of flame and a cloud of smoke billowing into the central Baghdad sky.

Security sources said the explosions occurred two minutes apart, not long before Muslims marking Ramadan were preparing to break their day-long fast.

An AP photographer at a checkpoint at the northwest corner of the hotel said at least 3 fellow photographers from other media were injured and taken away by ambulance.

Two AP television personnel inside the hotel sustained minor injuries.

The death toll of 11 was reported by the Qatari-based Al Jazeera and the Dubai-based Al Arabiya networks, quoting Iraqi security officials.

The bombers did not penetrate the concrete blast walls around the Palestine Hotel, which was last hit by an insurgent rocket attack on October 7, 2004.

There was considerable damage to the windows and rooms on the south side of the 19-story hotel.

TV pictures showed a huge cloud of smoke rising from the scene and debris falling from the building.

After the bombing, Iraqi forces opened fire with heavy automatic weapons fire, apparently firing at random.

There was no sign of a further assault on the hotel.

Maj Abbas Mohammed Suleiman said the hotel compound was hit by rockets and car bombs.

The Associated Press journalists had to evacuate their bureau in the hotel and take refuge in the corridor.

Inside the hotel, light fixtures were blown down, pictures were blasted off the walls and windows were shattered.