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Explosions rock Baghdad hotels, at least 36 dead

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-25 22:51
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Explosions rock Baghdad hotels, at least 36 dead
Iraqi policemen evacuate wounded people after a bomb attack in central Baghdad January 25, 2010. [Agencies] 

BAGHDAD: Iraqi police say suicide attackers detonated three explosives-packed cars near three Baghdad hotels popular with Western journalists and businessmen, killing at least 36 people and wounding more than 80.

Two police officials say the first blast went off at about 3:40 pm in the parking lot of the Sheraton Hotel, toppling high concrete blast walls protecting the site and damaging a number of buildings.

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Two other blasts followed minutes later, striking near the Babylon Hotel and al-Hamra Hotel.

Baghdad's top military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, says suicide bombers were responsible for all three attacks.

Iraqi authorities were searching for survivors in a number of houses that collapsed near the Hamra, which is popular with the western media.

One blast occurred at an entrance of the Ishtar Sheraton hotel, a Baghdad landmark on the eastern side of the Tigris river, and the shock wave blew open doors, shattered windows and sent thick dust swirling into the Reuters offices nearby.

A cloud of debris rose from blast site as ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene. Helicopters buzzed overhead afterward and soldiers blocked off entry.

TV images showed that towering concrete blastwalls protecting the hotel along the Abu Nawas riverside boulevard had fallen like dominoes. The blast took place across from a park frequented by families and picnickers.

The hotel has not been a regular hotel for years and largely houses company offices and some media organisations, but some adventurous international tour groups began using it last year.

Zina Tareq, an Iraqi journalist who was in her office at the time of the blast, said she dived under a desk with the five-year-old daughter of a colleague.

"We heard a deafening sound. The ceiling collapsed on us and the windows shattered," she said. Another colleague was wounded by broken glass.