New Wave Of Iraq Attacks
American troops and Iraqi civilians were killed Thursday in attacks around the country, one day after a massive bomb destroyed a hotel in central Baghdad.
Mortars fired at an Army base next to the Baghdad International Airport on Wednesday killed one U.S. soldier instantly, while a second died later in a military hospital, CBS News Reporter Lisa Barron says. In a second strike, three mortar rounds were fired at a Marine base near the Syrian border, killing one and wounding three.
A car bomb exploded as a British military patrol passed by in the southern city of Basra, killing four Iraqi civilians, police said. One man was arrested.
In northeastern Iraq, gunmen opened fire on a minibus, killing three Iraqi journalists and wounding nine other employees of a coalition-funded TV station, police said.
Rebels often target Iraqis perceived as collaborators with the Americans and the attacks underlined the continued vulnerability of Iraqi civilians nearly a year after Saddam Hussein was ousted.
Meanwhile, rescue crews called off their search for survivors of a massive suicide bombing of a hotel in Baghdad.
The military had earlier said that 27 people were killed in the Baghdad bombing. It then revised that to 17 and later Thursday Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said only seven were killed.
In other developments:
Wednesday's explosion, which left a jagged 20-foot-wide crater, also torched nearby homes, offices, cars and shops, sending dazed and wounded people stumbling from the wreckage.
"I was sleeping in the room and then I heard a huge explosion, I ran out and then I was hit against the wall," said Jihad Abu Muslah on Thursday while lying in Al Kindi Hospital with bandages over his face.
Rescuers pulled two more bodies from the rubble before dawn Thursday and smoke was still pouring from the site 12 hours after the explosion.
The nationalities of all the dead were not immediately known, though the majority are expected to be Iraqi. One Briton was killed and another was wounded, the British government said. At least 45 people were wounded.
Hotel duty manager Bashir Abdel-Hadi said among those killed were the hotel's three security guards, who were standing in front of it at the time.
The Mount Lebanon was a so-called soft target because it did not have concrete blast barriers and other security measures that protect offices of the U.S.-led coalition and buildings where Westerners live and work.
U.S. Army Col. Jill Morgenthaler said the hotel may not have been the intended target because the vehicle loaded with explosives was in the middle of the street and not parked in front of the hotel.
She said it was not clear what the target may have been. The hotel is in the middle of a busy district that is both commercial and residential. Across the street, the one-story house of a Christian family of seven was virtually destroyed. AP reporters saw four bodies pulled from the wreckage.
U.S. Army Col. Ralph Baker of the 1st Armored Division estimated that the bomb contained 1,000 pounds of explosives. He said the bomb was a mix of plastic explosives and artillery shells. That was the same mixture of explosives used in the Aug. 19 suicide attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council, Hamid al-Kafaai, blamed al Qaeda for the blast but offered no evidence to support the accusation.
"It is aimed at terrorizing the civilians, destabilizing the country and hampering the democratic march in the country," he said.
U.S. investigators suspect al Qaeda is behind the attack on the hotel, reports CBS' David Martin. The main suspect is Abu Al-Zarqawi, who U.S. officials say is communicating with senior al Qaeda leaders in Iran.
The U.S. has blamed al-Zarqawi for orchestrating other recent blasts, despite a letter purportedly from insurgents claiming he is dead.
The attack came just three days before the first anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war, which began on March 20, and about a week after the bombing attacks in Madrid that killed 201 and were seen as retaliation for Spain's involvement in Iraq.
U.S. officials said the attacks would not change U.S. policy.
"Democracy is taking root in Iraq and there is no turning back," said Scott McClellan, White House spokesman. "This is a time of testing, but the terrorists will not prevail."