Hotel blasted by motar fire

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

Just watching cnn and apparently motar rounds have just hit the rasheed(dont qoute my spelling) hotel. Apparenlty Wolfowitz was in the building at the time...Ill try to see if i can find some more info...

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

apparently they are now saying a rocket attack....the hotel is the al rasheed...3 people injured 2 left on stretchers...the defence secretary was in the building but was unharmed. He left the scene asap. The hotel house's senior collalition officialls.

edit---6 mortars hit the hotel. Soldiers also came under small arms fire, there maybe some casualties. It appears to be a co-ordinated attack they were coming under fire from surrounding buildings. The area is now closed until further notice, several floors have been damaged and there was some small fires.

edit--- apparently the rockets were fired from a passing car

edit---> apparently now they say the attack was launched from a street corner 400 meters away from the hotel using a multi-barreled rocket launcher?? (well dont flame me the iraqi guy said that on cnn)

[Mortimer]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/26/1067103260139.html

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz survived an apparent assassination attempt today when up to eight rickets were fired at the Baghdad hotel where he was staying. attemptwas staying today with a barrage of rockets. have been fired at a Baghdad hotel where US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying

Baghdad: Six to eight rockets early today struck the Al Rashid Hotel, where US military and civilian employees stay, the US military said.

A spokesman for the military command said there were an "unknown number of casualties" and a quick reaction force had been dispatched to the scene.

******* reported US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was evacuated after a series of blasts were heard early today.

A US defence official later said Wolfowitz was unharmed.

At least three people were wounded - two of whom were carried away on stretchers - a ******* journalist at the Rashid Hotel said.

The 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.

The ministry was attacked on September 27 with small rockets or rocket-propelled grenades, causing only minimal damage.

[ShotOver]

The United States warned that Islamic extremists are plotting an attack, possibly a suicide car bombing, on a hotel in a specific Baghdad neighbourhood that is frequented by Westerners.

In a notice to Americans now in Iraq, a State Department consular officer in Baghdad said the US military had become aware of the threat recently but could not pinpoint the targeted hotel.

"The US military has indicated that Islamic extremists intend to carry out a bomb attack against a hotel in the Karada area of Baghdad," said the notice, a copy of which was provided to AFP in Washington by the State Department.

"The hotel is used by Westerners," it said, adding that "the specific hotel or timing of the attack is not known".

The notice said there were several hotels in the Karada area used by Westerners and stressed that it "should be no surprise" that such buildings were under threat.




Although exact details of the plot were not clear, the notice said that since Islamic extremists appeared to be behind it, it was likely the attack would involve a suicide car bombing.

"Given that the threat is from Islamic extremists, this would suggest a suicide vehicle-based improvised explosive device," it said.

Heh, just got that from a news site.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/World/story_52670.asp

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

Was that released before the attack or after the attack?
Very interesting..kinda wierd you can be on the other side of the world and get instant information so fast and easily ....these are just the first reports.
This is what cnn said
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/26/sprj.irq.hotel/index.html

[ShotOver]

Yeah, i got that news just before the attack happend i think.

[Nizark]

as of 12:33am PST, they are saying that 12-15 RPG's were fired at the hotel, and/or a bunch of morders...they was even talk that it could be a possible iraqi truck-carried, MLRS. And that they were all fired by remote control, which is pretty strange since rpgs are fired by trigger, not electrically like stingers. But they are still not sure.

[ShotOver]

They could of rigged the triggers to fire by remote...

The anzac troops got their rifles to fire automatically when they were pulling out of Anzac cove in turkey, by tying string to the triggers and having a pully system thing.

Complicated, but it worked.

We will have to wait and see what happend over there, i hope everyone is alrite.

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

O.K. sorry everyone im not a post whore i got more info. O.K. apparently it was a comibination of a trailer rigged with rocket launchers and apparently also a car full of suspect towing the trailer. 10-20 people injured in the attack :( wish them boys the best.

[ShotOver]

Six to eight rockets have struck the Al-Rasheed Hotel, where US military and civilian employees stay, the US military said.

A spokesman for the military command said there were an "unknown number of casualties" and a quick reaction force had been dispatched to the scene.

******* reported US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was evacuated after a series of blasts were heard.

A US defence official later said Wolfowitz was unharmed.

At least three people were wounded - two of whom were carried away on stretchers - a ******* journalist at the Rashid Hotel said.




The 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.

The ministry was attacked on September 27 with small rockets or rocket-propelled grenades, causing only minimal damage.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/World/story_52670.asp




That news was just posted.

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

well ****...so many conflicting reports it really does sound like they dont know **** from poo at the moment...every news outlet seems to have a different report on it...i think the best we can do is sit and wait till they sort it all out..this is the downside to 24hour news channels/internet reports.

[Vance]

Well we know a US Colonel was killed in the attack :(

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

Well I guess unfortunealty that might have been part of the reason for all the differing reports. :(

[California Joe]

Does anyone know where Howard Dean was at the time? Hmmmmmmmmm.........

[jdbjdb]

The hotel was just hit again.

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

well i heard they got hit again by two rockets later during the night. pretty intense...you figure they would have the area heavily secured ....

[NcDeuce]

Wolfowitz defiant after hotel rocket strike
Coalition: U.S. deputy defense secretary likely not target

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the coalition's mission in Iraq will remain unchanged after his hotel was attacked Sunday in a deadly barrage of rockets.

Wolfowitz, the No. 2 civilian at the Pentagon, was unhurt in the attack on the heavily defended al-Rashid Hotel, which killed one U.S. soldier and wounded 15 other people early Sunday, a coalition spokesman said.

Two more explosions were heard Sunday evening in the hotel's vicinity, U.S. military officials said. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

Wolfowitz was on the 12th floor of the hotel, which houses U.S. and coalition officials in Baghdad, and, according to an aide, on the side of the hotel that came under attack. The rockets reached only as high as the 11th floor.

"This terrorist act will not deter us from completing our mission, which is to help the Iraqi people free themselves from the type of criminals who did this and to protect the American people from this kind of terrorism," Wolfowitz told reporters.

The attack came a day after U.S. authorities opened a key bridge across the Tigris River and lifted the curfew imposed on Baghdad after the invasion that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in April. (Bridge opens)

Between eight and 10 rockets slammed into the hotel's north side at about 6:10 a.m. Sunday, said Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the commander of the U.S. 1st Armored Division. Others fell short of the building, he said.

"If we look back at some of what we might describe as more sensational attacks, I think you'll see it's usually the case that they follow some positive event in the lives of the Iraqi people," Dempsey told reporters.

"This is another example of that. We take three steps forward and they try to pull us one step back, and in fact it doesn't work."

Damaged hotel evacuated
The al-Rashid Hotel is close to the Iraqi presidential palace and was built in the 1980s on the west bank of the Tigris River. It is now a fortified complex used by coalition officials.

The missiles hit between the third and eleventh floors of the hotel's north side, causing widespread damage and the evacuation of everyone inside.

One employee of a subcontractor working for the coalition, who asked not to be identified, said: "I heard a bang, then about three of four seconds later a second bang, and then a cluster of bangs.

"I knew what it was, and I jumped down in a space between my bed and the wall and waited for the bangs to stop.

"We were all shaken up by it. One of my colleagues was in a room between two people who were severely wounded, and he was especially shaken up."

Although Wolfowitz was in his room at the time of the attack, Dempsey said he did not believe the high-profile supporter of the war in Iraq was the target.

"I think this ... probably took a couple of months to prepare," Dempsey said. "His travel itinerary certainly wasn't known at that point in time."

A U.S. soldier assigned to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led administration, died in the rocket attack, Dempsey said.

Seven American civilians, four U.S. troops and four others who were not part of the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq were wounded. Four were still in hospitals Sunday after surgery.

Dempsey: Missile launcher primitive but clever
Dempsey said the rockets were fired from an improvised multiple-tube launcher mounted in a trailer that was made up to look like a mobile generator, about 400 meters (1,300 feet) from the hotel. He called the device "clever" but "rather primitive in nature."

The launcher was set to fire on a timer, allowing the perpetrators to leave the scene before the attack, and the vehicle was rigged with explosives that were defused by U.S. troops, he said.

The device launched 68- and 85 mm rockets, Dempsey said, 11 of which failed to fire.

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the incident should be seen in the light of a security situation that is improving overall.

"I'm sure our military commanders are doing everything possible to secure our personnel, but it's still a dangerous area, as we saw again tonight," he told reporters.

The al-Rashid Hotel was hit by rockets September 27 but suffered little damage.

Since the Iraq war began in March, 348 U.S. troops have been killed, including 224 in hostile fire. Since Bush declared the end of major combat May 1, 209 U.S. troops have died, 109 in hostile fire.

There is no reliable source for Iraqi civilian or combatant casualty figures, either during the period of major combat or after May 1. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP reported that the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals and the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.

Wolfowitz had visited Tikrit on Saturday, hours before the crew of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was attacked after they landed east of that city, an official at the Coalition Press Information Center told CNN.

One soldier was injured when unknown assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the helicopter crew after the landing, the CPIC official said.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/WORLD/meast/10/26/sprj.irq.hotel/story.tank.patrol.ap.jpg
A U.S. Army tank patrols neat the al-Rashid Hotel after Sunday morning's attack.

R.I.P. to the slain U.S. colonel.

http://www.foxnews.com/images/105923/3_23_102503_baghdad_hotel_window.jpg
Oct. 26: The Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad after being hit by several rockets.