Bomb Kills 2 at U.N. Compound in Baghdad
22/09/2003| IslamWeb
A car bomb exploded Monday morning while the vehicle was being examined at a checkpoint as it tried to enter the U.N. compound, killing at least two people and injuring eight others.
The blast occurred about 100 yards from the U.N. compound at the Canal Hotel, scene of a devastating car bombing last month that killed 23 people, including the U.N.'s top envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
"The bomber drove up and was engaged by an Iraqi security individual just before the checkpoint," a U.S. 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment spokesman, Capt. Sean Kirley, told reporters at the scene. That policeman was killed, although it was not clear whether he was shot or died in the explosion, he said.
Kirley said eight other Iraqi policemen were wounded. He said he didn't know whether any U.S. troops were near the scene at the time, but none was wounded.
United Nations staff have continued to work in undamaged offices at the hotel complex since the Aug. 19 bombing.
After the bombing, about 20 U.S. military vehicles could be seen swarming around the compound, and the area in northeastern Baghdad was sealed off by Iraqi police.
The bomb exploded two days after an assassination attempt against Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on the Iraqi Governing Council and a leading candidate to become Iraq's U.N. ambassador if the interim government wins approval to take the country's U.N. seat.
She was reported in serious but stable condition following the Saturday attack, which occurred as she was riding in a car near her home in western Baghdad. The Governing Council president, Ahmad Chalabi, blamed remnants of the regime of Saddam Hussein, whose government was toppled by U.S.-led forces in April.
**PHOTO CAPTION***
Wreckage from a car bomb that exploded while being examined at a checkpoint near the U.N. compound at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Sept. 22, 2003. (AP Photo/APTN)
www.islamweb.net