Powerful blast shatters Baghdad hotel

Terrible:

A powerful explosion, apparently from a car bomb, went off
in the Karrada district of central Baghdad Wednesday, virtually
destroying the Mount Lebanon Hotel and damaging a number of houses and
offices nearby. Iraqi police sources said there were "many dead, many
injured." A coalition military official said he believed the blast was
caused by a car bomb.
"It's a scene from hell here," CNN Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf
said.
"People are crying and screaming and debris is everywhere," Arraf said.
"I heard the explosion and I ran down the street, and saw many, many
people killed. There were children dead," Raad Abdul Karim, 30, told
Reuters. "They are ordinary families. I don't know why this happened."

Here's the paragraph that worries me though:

Iraqi police and coalition soldiers cordoned off the area.
U.S. soldiers from the nearby "Green Zone" attempted to go into the
area to rescue victims but were driven back by angry Iraqis.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 17, 2004 at 01:48 PM | Permalink