From: Walter Watts (wlwatts@cox.net)
Date: Sun Oct 26 2003 - 20:04:57 MST
THERE IS A GOD!!!!!
Rockets Drive Wolfowitz Out of Iraq Hotel
Oct 26, 7:31 PM (ET)
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. occupation authority retreated from its
headquarters Sunday after Iraqi insurgents, using a
"science project" of a rocket launcher, attacked the heavily guarded
hotel with a missile barrage that killed an American
colonel, wounded 18 other people and sent the visiting deputy defense
secretary scurrying for safety.
Paul Wolfowitz, the shaken-looking but unhurt Pentagon deputy, said the
strike against the Al Rasheed Hotel, from nearly
point-blank range, "will not deter us from completing our mission" in
Iraq.
But the bold blow at the heart of the U.S. presence here clearly rattled
U.S. confidence that it is defeating Iraq's shadowy
insurgents.
"We'll have to get the security situation under control," Secretary of
State Colin Powell told NBC's "Meet the Press."
The Bush administration knew postwar security would be a challenge, but
"we didn't expect it would be quite this intense
this long," he said.
The assault was likely planned over at least the past two months, a top
U.S. commander said, as the insurgents put together
the improvised rocket launcher and figured out how to wheel it into the
park just across the street from the hotel.
The effect of the 6:10 a.m. volley of rockets was dramatic: U.S.
officials and officers fled from the Al Rasheed, some still
in pajamas or shorts to a nearby convention center. The concrete western
face of the 18-story building was pockmarked with a
half-dozen or more blast holes, and windows shattered in at least two
dozen rooms.
The modern, 462-room Al-Rasheed, housing civilian officials of the
U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority and U.S.
military personnel, is a symbol of the occupation. The assault
highlighted the vulnerability of even heavily guarded U.S.
facilities in Iraq, where American forces sustain an average of 26
lower-profile attacks daily, and where Wolfowitz came to
assess ways to defeat the stubborn 6-month-old insurgency.
More than 15 hours after the rocket fire and after U.S. security
officials flooded the neighborhood, two explosions went off
in the same downtown area. An Iraqi policeman said an assailant fired a
rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. convoy next to
the al-Mansour Hotel, about a mile away from the Al Rasheed. There were
no casualties, he said.
A day earlier, a rocket-propelled grenade forced down a U.S. Army Black
Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad, the 4th Infantry
Division confirmed Sunday. The incident occurred just hours after
Wolfowitz left that area on the second day of his
three-day visit. One soldier was injured.
The U.S. command said the wounded included seven American civilians,
four U.S. military personnel and five non-U.S.
civilians working for the coalition. Two Iraqi security guards also were
hurt. The command did not immediately identify the
dead American, but Wolfowitz said he was a U.S. colonel.
A senior FBI official said the bureau, the Defense Department, the State
Department and Iraqi police were all involved in
the investigation. Wolfowitz and his aides were very close to the area
of the hotel that was struck, but there was no
indication the attack was directed at Wolfowitz, the Pentagon said.
Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey of the 1st Armored Division said he believed
the insurgents timed the attack with the lifting this
weekend of an overnight curfew in Baghdad and the reopening of a main
city bridge.
"Any time we demonstrate a return to normalcy, there are those who will
push back at that," said Dempsey, who is responsible
for security in Baghdad.
Iraqi police said the attacker or attackers boldly drove a white
Chevrolet pickup to the edge of the city's main Zawra Park
and Zoo, just 400 yards southwest of the hotel, towing what looked like
a portable, two-wheeled generator.
A police commander said on condition of anonymity that when security
guards approached, the assailants drove off, but
rockets within the blue trailer apparently had been set to fire via a
timer and suddenly ignited, flashing toward the hotel,
a clear shot looming just over the treetops.
"When he saw us, he fled," guard Jabbar Tarek said of the driver. The
guards weren't armed, Tarek said, or "I would have
fired on him."
Tarek and one other guard were lightly injured by rockets that exploded
prematurely, Dempsey said.
"I thought my house was being destroyed, it was such a huge sound,"
Hamoudi Mutlag, 48, said of the rockets' impact.
An Al Rasheed maintenance worker, he was asked whether he now feared
staying in his house, situated between the firing point
and the hotel.
"Every place in Baghdad is dangerous now that the Americans are here,"
he said.
Dempsey said the attackers welded together a 40-pod launcher that held
both 68mm and 85mm artillery rockets. Between eight
and 10 struck the hotel, and 11 never left their tubes, he said.
The division commander said the insurgent operation required "some
reconnaissance and some rehearsal," and possibly two
months' preparation. The device was not sophisticated - "a science
project in a garage with a welder and a battery and a
handful of wires" - but it was effective, he said.
"There is no guarantee we can protect against this kind of thing unless
we have soldiers on every block," one of Dempsey's
reconnaissance officers, 1st Lt. Brian Dowd, said at the scene.
The general said his troops had to disarm booby-trap explosives attached
to the trailer before towing it away.
A coalition official said on condition of anonymity that the authority
later ordered the hotel evacuated indefinitely, its
hundreds of guests to be scattered among other lodging places in the
so-called "Green Zone," a heavily guarded district
along the Tigris River that includes the palace headquarters of the
authority, the offices of the interim Iraqi Governing
Council, and the Convention Center housing coalition press relations and
other offices.
The formerly government-owned Al Rasheed, Baghdad's best-known luxury
hotel, was taken over by occupation authorities after
U.S.-British forces toppled the Baathist government of President Saddam
Hussein in April.
The well-planned attack was the second on the hotel, which was hit Sept.
27 by small rockets or rocket-propelled grenades
that caused minimal damage and no casualties.
In his brief morning statement, Wolfowitz spoke of "even bigger news"
than the hotel attack - the growing number of Iraqis
being trained and equipped "and going out on patrols, fighting these
criminals."
The U.S. administration largely blames die-hard Saddam loyalists and
foreign fighters for the continuing hit-and-run
guerrilla war. But other Iraqis opposed to the U.S. occupation also are
believed to be participating in the resistance.
At his news conference, Dempsey noted the number of attacks started
surging in September.
"Why haven't the number of attacks gone down? I don't know the answer to
that," he said. The U.S. command is "still trying
... to figure out exactly why that happened."
Also Sunday, a Spanish army sergeant died after being shot accidentally
by a colleague, Spain's defense ministry said.
-- Walter Watts Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc. "Reminding you to help control the human population. Have your sexual partner spayed or neutered." --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
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