The hotel in Baghdad where United States Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz was staying was hit on Sunday morning by explosive projectiles in an attack that wounded at least three people.
The attack took place at about 6.10am Baghdad time. Details were sketchy, but Wolfowitz, who was staying at the Al Rasheed hotel, was said not to have been injured, CNN reported.
CNN initially quoted American military sources as saying six rockets had been fired by unknown attackers at the hotel. But US military reports later said that six to eight projectiles were fired and that they may have included mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades or missiles.
Wolfowitz, who appeared shaken after the attack, expressed ”profound sympathy” for the missile attack and said that danger persists in Iraq ”as long as there are criminals out there staging hit-and-run attacks.”
US troops prevented reporters from reaching the scene, located in a heavily guarded area near coalition headquarters.
A spokesperson 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 further comment.
The blast sent American soldiers and officials fleeing the building in pyjamas and shorts, witnesses said.
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 and the Convention Centre, which houses US information and other offices.
A large area of central Baghdad was sealed off by American forces after the blast.
Some balconies in the midlevel of the hotel appeared damaged and a large hole caused by a rocket was visible on one side of the building. It appeared that the projectiles were fired from the western side of hotel.
Several US army humvees and at least one armoured personnel carrier were blocking the street leading up to the hotel.
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. They were wearing pyjamas and shorts.”
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 took a hit by a US missile during the 1991 Gulf War and fragments were on display for years in the lobby.
The hotel, which was built and owned by the deposed Iraqi government, was Iraq’s marquee guesthouse. Inaugurated in 1982 for a summit of nonaligned 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 to explode in flames and spew a column of black smoke.
Also on Saturday, US military officials reopened a major bridge over the Tigris River to ease transportation in the capital and ended the nighttime curfew in effect since April.
Coalition officials took the moves in preparation for the holy month of fasting, Ramadan, which begins on Monday. The month is marked by nighttime festivities.
Iraqi authorities said the steps were taken because of an improved security situation in the capital. — Sapa-AP, Sapa-DPA