- Title: IRAQ: HOTELS ATTACKED IN LATEST ATTACKS IN BAGHDAD
- Date: 25th December 2003
- Summary: (W2) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 25, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF BAGHDAD SKYLINE AT NIGHT, SOUND OF GUNFIRE/ EXPLOSIONS (3 SHOTS) 0.32 (DAY SCENES) 2. WIDE OF HOLE AT EXTERIOR WALL SHERATON HOTEL 0.39 3. CLOSE UP HOLE 0.43 4. WIDE OF HOTEL WINDOW 0.52 5. WIDE OF WALL OF HOTEL WITH DAMAGE CAUSED BY MORTAR 0.55
- Embargoed: 9th January 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA5QC5PUUKIYKYXPGJHGXLHAC4Z
- Story Text: Rockets hit several targets in Baghdad, including
hotels.
About half a dozen rockets slammed into central
Baghdad on Thursday (December 25) in guerrilla attacks on
several targets in the city, witnesses said, but there were
no immediate reports of deaths.
Rockets hit two hotels used by Westerners, an apartment
block and the area where the headquarters of the U.S.-led
administration is situated shortly after 6 a.m. (0300 GMT).
The lift area between the eighth and ninth floors of
the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel was struck. Debris and shattered
glass littered the hotel's lobby.
A manager at the hotel said there were no casualties.
The hotel was hit in another attack late on Wednesday
(December 24), but once again there were no casualties.
A U. S. commander said the attackers left behind
leaflets urging employees at the Ishtar Sheraton to stop
working at the hotel.
A missile fired at Al-Hayat Tower in central Baghdad
landed at a nearby house, causing structural damage but no
causalities.
The missile also caused slight damage to the facade of
the Hotel, which houses westerners, including Americans,
partially damaging one of its balconies.
A U.S. military spokesman said three or four rockets
struck in the vicinity of the U.S.-led Coalition
Provisional Authority complex in the centre of Baghdad on
the western bank of the Tigris River.
Warning sirens sounded several times at the complex
that was once one of former Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein's palaces.
U.S.-led occupation officials in Iraq had warned
insurgents would launch spectacular attacks during the
Christmas holiday season.
Washington blames attacks on Saddam supporters and
foreign Islamic militants.
Blasts and heavy machine-gun fire echoed across the
city as the U.S. military's Operation Iron Grip went on
into early Thursday to flush out suspected guerrillas.
The deaths of the three soldiers on Wednesday brought
to 205 the number of U.S. military deaths since U.S.
President George W. Bush declared major combat over in Iraq
on May 1.
U.S. soldiers have arrested hundreds of suspected
guerrillas and their backers in raids across the Sunni
Muslim heartland west and north of Baghdad since Saddam was
captured on December 13 in his home town of Tikrit.
The Sunni minority dominated Iraq under Saddam's rule.
He repressed the majority Shi'ite Muslims during his three
decades in power.
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