At least 20 people were killed and scores injured when a suicide bomber struck Baghdad’s Canal Hotel, which serves as area headquarters for the U.N. The explosion jolted Baghdad up to a mile away. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
Soldiers and rescue workers survey the rubble of the Canal Hotel. Among those killed in the blast was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the chief U.N. official in Iraq. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
Rescue crews work at the blast site. The explosion occurred at 4:30 local time at the Canal Hotel, where the most seriously injured sat near the street-level windows as employees were wrapping up their workday. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
A U.S. soldier consoles a woman at the scene of the U.N. explosion. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
A wounded man is assisted by a U.S. soldier. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
An injured girl is rushed from the blast site. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
U.N. employee Mustafa Naji is bloodied and shaken as he is led from the blast site in Baghdad. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
Victims are evacuated from the scene. The attack was the first suicide bombing in Iraq since the U.S. takeover and the second major attack against a civilian target in Iraq this month. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
The blast, caused by “an enormous amount of explosives,” according to Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who is working to rebuild the Iraqi police force, collapsed part of the structure. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)
