Catastrophe narrowly averted in attacks on Palestine and Sheraton hotels

Reporters Without Borders today said it was appalled by yesterday's almost simultaneous suicide attacks on the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad in which nine journalists and media assistants were seriously injured. The attacks, which killed a total of 17 hotel employees and passers-by, were directly targeted at foreign journalists working in Iraq, the organisation said. “The Palestine and Sheraton hotels are chiefly used by foreign correspondents based in Irak and also serve as the headquarters of several international news agencies,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The goal of the terrorists was clear. We are all the more disturbed as this is the first time there has been an attack of this scale against the media in Iraq.” The press freedom organisation added: “The toll would have been even higher if the guards had not fired on the cement truck laden with explosives used by the suicide bombers heading towards the hotels. We came within a hair's breadth of catastrophe.” Five of the nine injured journalists work for Al Hurra TV, two for the news agency APTN, and two for radio Nwowa including its bureau chief Seif Al Khayaj, who was among those who were rushed to hospital. The attacks began with a car-bomb that went off against the perimeter walls of the Palestine and Sheraton hotels. Another car-bomb approached from the square five minutes later and tried to manoeuvre through the gap, but was fired on by security guards. Seconds later, the cement truck tried to get through. An Iraqi security source told Agence France-Presse: “A catastrophe was only just avoided. The toll would have been much higher if the US soldiers had not fired on the cement truck with explosives used in the attacks.”