Bombs Target Baghdad Hotel Housing Westerners

Two massive vehicle bombs exploded this morning near the Hamra Hotel complex here that serves as a base for international journalists and several Western security firms.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Karl Horst said at least four people were killed and 19 wounded. Search and rescue operations continued, and the toll could increase.

The attack was similar to a vehicle bomb assault at the Palestine Hotel on Oct. 24. A lead vehicle blew a hole in thick concrete blast walls, and a second vehicle attempted to pass through the breach about 10 seconds later but detonated before it could do so.

This morning’s explosions reduced to rubble a two-story, four-unit apartment building just outside the blast walls and badly damaged at least 10 other structures.

Iraqi and U.S. troops moved in swiftly to sift through the rubble brick by brick.

Rescuers dug out one man, his legs broken and his face battered. Soldiers pulled out at least two corpses. Human remains and shrapnel were flung over a wide area.

Estimates of the number killed varied widely in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Iraqi and U.S. forces brought in bulldozers to search for bodies as U.S. helicopters circled overhead.

The attack took place in southern Baghdad’s Jadiriya neighborhood.

The area is also home to many middle-class Iraqi families.

Residents who live nearby searched for their relatives, with one unidentified woman beating her face in distress.

“Let all the gulf nations laugh at us!” she cried. “Let the world laugh at us!”

The blast site is also near an Interior Ministry detention facility raided by U.S. and Iraqi forces this week. They found evidence that Sunni prisoners had been tortured there.