Two RPGs hit Baghdad hotel

Published January 10, 2004

BAGHDAD, Jan 9: Guerillas fired two rocket-propelled grenades on Friday at a Baghdad hotel used by foreign companies, contracted by the US-led administration, but there were no casualties.

"The first and fourth floors were hit. No one was wounded," said one of the guards from the companies, hired by the administration. The attack happened on the Bourj al Hayat hotel, which has cement barriers shielding it from the street, in central Baghdad.

Offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the ruling party in the northern Iraqi provinces of Arbil and Dohuk, are in a neighbouring hotel. One security guard described four men jumping out of an Opel car and firing two RPGs before speeding off.

A loud explosion was followed by several bursts of machinegun fire and then a second blast. A witness claimed the men were masked. Guards said the hotel had previously been shelled with RPGs on Dec 25, and had been hit by heavy machinegun fire on Dec 18.-AFP