[gburner]

Fox news is reporting this hour that the UN headquarters in Baghdad has been the target of a 'massive truck bomb'. Reports are that a cement mixer driven by a suicide bomber drove through the gate of the UN compound at the Canal Hotel, crashed through the lobby and detonated, destroying a third of the structure. One person, besides the driver, is reportedly killed with scores wounded, including the chief UN rep in Iraq. Footage of Blackhawk helos taking away the wounded is being shown behind the commentary of the talking heads and heir resident 'experts'. Apparently the US was not responsible for the site's security and no perimeter or obstruction network had been put in place to forstall the liklihood of this type of attack. More to follow.

[geekWithA.45]

Apparently, their logic is: "We didn't support the war, therefore we're not a target".

The UN is apparently too stupid to defend their HQ in the middle of a freaking war zone, again demonstrating their lack of fitness to do anything in particular.

Shaking head in disgust, praying for victims of UN stupidity worldwide.

[WT]

They got the wrong UN building. They should have gotten the one in NYC.

Hope no American or allied troops are hurt.

[Sven]

Drudge has a link to an article claiming they found a letter from Bin Laden on the bombers body. How would any evidence like this survive such a blast?

[TarpleyG]

At least Fox News got the term 'homicide bomber' right.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95100,00.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Explosion Rocks U.N. Mission in Baghdad

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

A huge explosion that may have been the work of a homicide bomber ripped through U.N. headquarters in Baghdad Tuesday, injuring scores of people.

The Coalition Press Information Center (search) said a large truck bomb - possibly a cement mixer - caused the blast around 4:30 p.m. local time. Witnesses told Reuters that at least three people were killed. There was no confirmation of that report.

"The explosion was caused by a massive truck bomb," Bernard Kerik, the senior U.S. law enforcement official in Baghdad and former New York City police commissioner, told reporters at the scene. "We have evidence to suggest it could have been a suicide attack."

• Map: Recent Developments in Iraq
• Video: Explosion in Baghdad

U.N. headquarters in New York said at least one person was killed and 32 injured as of 10 a.m. ET, but that number was expected to increase.

The blast occurred at the Canal Hotel (search), home to the United Nations mission in Iraq. U.N. workers lived and worked in the building when international weapons inspectors were scouring Iraq for evidence of weapons of mass destruction before the war began.

"My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," a resident in the area said.

American Black Hawk (search) helicopters could be seen flying toward the scene of the explosion as Humvees rolled in. Black smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air.

About one-third of the buildings appeared to be destroyed. Iraqis said the blast blew out windows as far as a mile away; several cars were destroyed.

U.N. workers told Fox News there were at least 150 workers inside the building. At nearby al-Kindi Hospital, Dr. Munas Amer said at least two people, both Iraqis, were killed in the blast and at least 25 other people were brought in for treatment.

Fox News' Dan Springer, reporting from Baghdad, said one entire corner of the two-story hotel has been blown away. It appeared as if the explosion was centered on the building's lobby.

Emergency workers from a nearby National Spinal Cord Injury Center, which also suffered damage, were going through the rubble, looking for survivors and victims.

"What I'm looking at is a scene of immense devastation," Springer reported.

The U.S. military said at least nine people were wounded as of 9:30 ET. The U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone, said dozens were wounded. Fred Eckhard, the U.N. Spokesperson in New York, said he couldn't confirm any deaths.

U.N. Iraq representative Sergio Vieira de Mello (search), one of the highest-ranking officials at the United Nations, was injured.

"Sergio Vieira de Mello's office was destroyed and Sergio himself was hurt," said Eckhard.

A senior UNICEF official also was seriously wounded in the blast, U.N. officials said.

Sources at the State Department told Fox News: "It is too early to know if any Americans are among the casualties. A U.S. consular official is on the scene."

President Bush, who was playing golf in Waco, Texas, was informed of the bombing and cut short his golf game. He's expected to make a statement to the press shortly.

A car was seen ablaze outside the collapsed corner of the building. Many injured were on the scene, which was secured by the U.S. Army and Iraqi police.

One wounded man had a yard-long, inch-thick aluminum rod driven into his face just below his right eye. He was able to speak and identified himself as a security consultant for the International Monetary Fund, saying he had just arrived in the country over the weekend.

Tuesday's explosion seemed to be more powerful than the car bomb that rocked the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad (search) on Aug. 7, which killed at least 11 people and left more than 50 wounded.

The latest attack was the latest in a string of incidents at so-called "soft targets," or lightly guarded civilian and diplomatic facilities.

Oil and water pipelines also came under what is thought to be sabotage attacks this week.

"Our response has to be to show the strength of the United Nations in these circumstances," Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Mexico's ambassador to the U.N., said from New York. "An act of terrorism… simply indicates that terrorists respect no boundaries."

Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, just Tuesday morning was warning against the flood of potential terrorists coming in to Iraq from neighboring countries to boost opposition forces.

U.S. administrators and the military "do believe that there are professional terrorists, foreign regime leaders … coming in from the border of Iraq," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who met with U.S. military leaders in Iraq earlier in the day, told Fox News. "But we cannot cut and run. We must stay here and build the security of this country ... and start helping the people of Iraq recover."

She added: "The escalation of terrorists attacks are of great concern to everyone,"

Other lawmakers agreed the latest bombing is evidence of the threat that still plagues post-regime reconstruction efforts.

"I think what this shows is an increase in the level of org. of the opposition we face," Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told Fox News. "We have to assume a further escalation of violence against coalition forces and allies."

"There seems to me rather stark evidence in the heart of Baghdad that terrorists are afoot, even Al Qaeda afoot, in the provinces of Iraq," added Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told Fox News.

The United Nations distributes humanitarian aid and is developing programs aimed at boosting Iraq's emerging free press, justice system and monitoring of human rights.

The United States failed to win the backing of the U.N. Security Council before it invaded Iraq on March 20, and since major fighting ended in April, the United States has been reluctant to let the United Nations play a large role in rebuilding the country.

Fox News military analyst, Maj. Bob Bevelacqua, said the bombing is a clear example of terror groups sending a message: "if you're going to assist the United States, we're going to come after you."

Amb. Dennis Ross, Fox News foreign affairs analyst, argued the message was directed at the Iraqi people.

"What they're [terrorists] trying to convey right now is that nothing is going to go back to normal — that those who are determined to prevent the United States from succeeding will continue, will persevere … every time something is done to build infrastructure, it will be destroyed."

The Canal Hotel operates more as an office building than a hotel. The cafeteria is a popular place for humanitarian workers and journalists to meet.

The three-floor building houses the offices of most U.N. agencies with the exception of UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Fox News' Steve Harrigan, David Lee Miller, Liza Porteus, Teri Schultz and Dan Springer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Futo Inu]

UN headquarters are in Baghdad? News to me (good news) - I thought it was in NYC.

[LawDog]

Multiple threads merged.

LawDog

[Ol' Badger]

Bummer.

:rolleyes:

[KC]

Just goes to show how stupid and careless terrorists can be--attacking one of their allies in the international arena like that.

[Baba Louie]

Sounds like these guys have been reading Tom Clancy's works and taking them to heart, i.e., Debt of Honor (Sept 11) and now Executive Order (the american mountain men with their cement mixer bomb truck).

Maybe the White House was thinking that way as well with the Ebola plot (as WMD) in Exec. Order.

Maybe we should outlaw Tom Clancy.:rolleyes: Or at least keep his plotlines away from radical Islamic suicide bomb types. (As if they needed T.C.'s help)

At least it appears that most of that type of action is located elsewhere as opposed to here... so far, with a few notable examples otherwise of course.

You really wouldn't want that to happen in NYC would you? Not that we want it to happen there either.

What's that quote about a war on the Asian landmass?

Not good. Trouble brewing.

Adios

[KC]

"What's that quote about a war on the Asian landmass?"

My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my...." no, wait, that's not it....

[sw442642]

The Grand stategy is pretty bright. They are showing that the area is out of control and the US is going to be fairly helpless as the strikes move to many soft targets.

The UN can be seen as just a support for the US occupation. We want them to take over the social stuff so we can look for the WMD (now hidden on Mars, by the way).

The real battle is going to be whether the mass of the Iraqi people want us to rule them. If they prefer their own chaos over an occupation then we are sunk.

Now, who is going to send humanitarian stuff there? No one. So we have to fill the gap and it is clear that we were terribly under prepared for it.

We though that with some Shock and Awe shuck and jive, the Iraqis would all turn into GOP supporters from Orange County and give Bush a parade.

The war was easy because the Iraqis chose not to fight a clearly impossible conventional battle. So their forces melted away. Now, we will see if we can stay there. It also looks like Afghanistan is going the same way.

Unless we really commit massive occupation forces and have programs similar to our occupation of Japan to alter those two cultures - we should get our butts out. We are enamoured with techy solutions like hyperspace precision bombing that are irrelevant to political and sociological battles.

It won't get better by more guys riding around in M-1A tanks.

[morganm01]

I've seen various sources quote officials as saying they didn't have tighter security at the UN because they didn't want to have a "strong U.S. presence." Does anyone think that opinion will change?