Baghdad hotel bombed as 45 killed in Iraq
Suicide bombers struck a hotel in the heart of Baghdad and police targets in a wave of bombings on Monday that killed at least 45 people, including tribal leaders who have vowed to fight Al-Qaeda.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in the crowded lobby of Baghdad's Al-Mansour Melia hotel during an informal gathering of local tribal sheikhs, both Sunni and Shiite.
"(The attack) targeted the tribes that are fighting terrorism," said Sheikh Mahmud Daham from the restive Sunni province of Anbar west of Baghdad, who was in the hotel at the time.
An AFP correspondent said charred bodies of the victims and many of the wounded were lying near the reception desk in the rubble-strewn lobby, and that the ceiling had collapsed, leaving clusters of white tiles hanging from wires.
The blast damaged the stairway, the elevators, and the ceiling of the first floor of the hotel, which lies on the west bank of the Tigris river and houses diplomats and some foreign media organisations.
Patches of blood stained the marble floor and scraps of human flesh were left stuck to the concrete pillars.
At least 12 people were killed including Shiite and Sunni tribal sheikhs, and 21 wounded, staff and security officials said.
One of those killed was Fassal al-Gawud, an ex-governor of Anbar, where several tribal sheikhs have recently allied with US and Iraqi forces against Al-Qaeda, according to security officials.
Hussein Shaalan, a Shiite tribal chief from the central city of Diwaniyah was also killed along with his son and a bodyguard.
A security source had identified Hussein Shaalan as a Shiite MP bearing the same name, but this was later denied by MP Aliah Nassef from the Iraqi National List of former premier Iyad Allawi.
Other victims included Rahim al-Maliki, a poet employed by Iraq's state-run Iraqiyah television, and two Sunni tribal sheikhs.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned what he called an attempt to "conceal the terrorists' defeats in Anbar and Diyala provinces at the hands of our armed forces and the tribes."
"This will not break the resolve of the sheikhs and the sons of the tribes of Anbar, but will increase their determination to purify their land from the evil ones and the foreign infiltrators," he added.
Two other other suicide bombings killed another 33 people, mostly policemen.
The string of explosions came as US and Iraqi troops channelled thousands of troops into offensives across the country aimed at bringing Iraq's Sunni-led insurgency to heal.
In the largest operation, 10,000 US and Iraqi troops slogged their way through the sixth day of a major air and ground assault on the restive city of Baquba, which had become a central Al-Qaeda stronghold.
But US commanders have admitted that most of the senior insurgent leadership fled the initial assault, and the drumbeat of attacks on Monday seemed to defy expectations that the troop "surge" would work.
"This sends a terrible message about the situation. We are now four months into the Baghdad security plan, and if the terrorists can penetrate such a place in Baghdad it is not very encouraging," said Ahmed Chalabi, a prominent Iraqi politician involved in national reconciliation efforts.
Chalabi, who visited the scene, said some of the slain sheikhs had been in the process of joining the Iraqi government and the US military in opposing Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a campaign he said would continue despite the attack.
The deadliest strike on Monday was in the northern oil refining town of Baiji where 25 people were killed and 50 wounded when a bomber ploughed an explosives-laden oil tanker into the police headquarters.
"A suicide bomber driving an oil tanker tried to break into the building but he blew himself up at the gate because he could not get in. It resulted in huge damage to the building," said Police Captain Ahmed Hussein of Baiji.
"All the wounded are civilians from shops near the headquarters, but most of those killed are prisoners and policemen," he said.
In central Iraq, in the town of Hilla, a suicide car bomber slammed into a crowd of recruits waiting outside a police academy, killing eight and wounding several dozen.
"The recruits were just a week away from their graduation," said Police Lieutenant Mohammed al-Dulaimi of Hilla police.
An AFP reporter said the attack gouged out a large crater in the middle of the street. A number of nearby buildings, including a school, and many shops were damaged by the blast.
Meanwhile, three foreign private security contractors were killed in clashes with militants near the southern Iraqi port city of Basra, a senior police official told AFP.
AFP
