At least 36 people were killed in a series of car bombings in central Baghdad on Monday, police said, ending a 6-week lull in coordinated assaults on the Iraqi capital as the country heads for national elections in March.
At least 71 people were wounded in attacks at the Ishtar Sheraton, the Babylon, and the al-Hamra hotels, police said. Iraqi authorities were searching for survivors in a number of houses that collapsed near the Hamra, which is popular with the western media.
We heard a deafening sound. The ceiling collapsed on us and the windows shattered
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 andshattered windows.
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 blast walls 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 organizations, 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.
Critical moment
A second bomb appeared to have blown up near the Babylon hotel, which is used by Iraqi travelers and sometimes for government meetings.
Police said the third blast went off at the al-Hamra hotel, which has been home to many Western journalists since the 2003 U.S. invasion. One western reporter said the hotel had sustained heavy damage.
Monday's explosions come less than six weeks from a March 7 general election which both U.S. forces and Iraqi politicians had warned could be a focus for violence.
The latest violence also occurred less than two weeks after security forces sealed off Baghdad after being tipped-off that bomb-laden cars had been parked in the city.
Insurgents, weakened in the past year, have in the past six months changed tactics and mounted successful high-profile attacks on "hard" targets such as government buildings, rather than so-called soft targets in civilian areas.
There are widespread fears, in the wake of the bloody attacks to hit Baghdad in the second half of 2009, that political violence will rise in the weeks leading up to the vote.
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