Wolfowitz Escapes Attack on Al Rashid Hotel
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2003 11:42 am
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Anti-American forces on Sunday unleashed a multiple-rocket attack on the Al Rashid Hotel, which houses U.S. personnel and where visiting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying.
Wolfowitz escaped, but a U.S. colonel was killed and 15 people were injured in the attack.
U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey said Sunday he did not believe that Wolfowitz was individually targeted in the attack.
The attack using eight to 10 rockets was carefully orchestrated, Dempsey said. Preparations "probably lasting over a couple of months" were required. “No doubt it required some reconnaissance and some rehearsal,” he said at a press conference in Baghdad.
U.S. officials living in the Baghdad hotel fled in pajamas and shorts after the 6:10 a.m. assault, which apparently used a makeshift rocket battery on a timer that had been wheeled into a nearby park. More than a half-dozen holes pockmarked the hotel's concrete facade and windows were shattered in two dozen rooms.
Seven American civilians, four U.S. military personnel and four "non-U.S. coalition civilian partners" were wounded, according to a statement by the U.S. command.
Wolfowitz, on a three-day Iraq tour, was in the Al Rashid at the time of the attack, Maj. Paul Swiergosz said at the Pentagon.
The deputy defense secretary appeared shaken as he addressed reporters at a convention center across the street where most officials fled, vowing the attack would not deter the United States in its mission to transform Iraq.
"There are a few who refuse to accept the reality of a new and free Iraq," Wolfowitz said. "We will be unrelenting in our pursuit of them."
Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters Sunday that he had not yet spoken to Wolfowitz. "He's quite busy now and I'm sure he's in conversation with Secretary Rumsfeld," Powell said.
"We deplore the attack but it shows you that even while many positive things are happening in Baghdad and in Iraq ... we do still have these dangerous situations and we have to deal with these remnants of the old regime and we will do so."
The hotel houses civilian occupation officials and U.S. military forces. The heaviest damage was on what appeared to be the fifth and eighth floors of the modern, 18-story building.
The attackers had driven to the edge of a park just 500 yards southwest of the hotel, towing what looked like a portable, two-wheeled generator, Iraqi police said. They quickly fled, and rockets suddenly ignited within the trailer, apparently on a timer, flashing toward the nearby hotel. Their impact resounded across central Baghdad.
Three approaching security guards were injured by the ignition blast, police said.
Wolfowitz, expressing "profound sympathy" for the victims, said danger persists in Iraq "as long as there are criminals out there staging hit-and-run attacks."
Wolfowitz escaped, but a U.S. colonel was killed and 15 people were injured in the attack.
U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey said Sunday he did not believe that Wolfowitz was individually targeted in the attack.
The attack using eight to 10 rockets was carefully orchestrated, Dempsey said. Preparations "probably lasting over a couple of months" were required. “No doubt it required some reconnaissance and some rehearsal,” he said at a press conference in Baghdad.
U.S. officials living in the Baghdad hotel fled in pajamas and shorts after the 6:10 a.m. assault, which apparently used a makeshift rocket battery on a timer that had been wheeled into a nearby park. More than a half-dozen holes pockmarked the hotel's concrete facade and windows were shattered in two dozen rooms.
Seven American civilians, four U.S. military personnel and four "non-U.S. coalition civilian partners" were wounded, according to a statement by the U.S. command.
Wolfowitz, on a three-day Iraq tour, was in the Al Rashid at the time of the attack, Maj. Paul Swiergosz said at the Pentagon.
The deputy defense secretary appeared shaken as he addressed reporters at a convention center across the street where most officials fled, vowing the attack would not deter the United States in its mission to transform Iraq.
"There are a few who refuse to accept the reality of a new and free Iraq," Wolfowitz said. "We will be unrelenting in our pursuit of them."
Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters Sunday that he had not yet spoken to Wolfowitz. "He's quite busy now and I'm sure he's in conversation with Secretary Rumsfeld," Powell said.
"We deplore the attack but it shows you that even while many positive things are happening in Baghdad and in Iraq ... we do still have these dangerous situations and we have to deal with these remnants of the old regime and we will do so."
The hotel houses civilian occupation officials and U.S. military forces. The heaviest damage was on what appeared to be the fifth and eighth floors of the modern, 18-story building.
The attackers had driven to the edge of a park just 500 yards southwest of the hotel, towing what looked like a portable, two-wheeled generator, Iraqi police said. They quickly fled, and rockets suddenly ignited within the trailer, apparently on a timer, flashing toward the nearby hotel. Their impact resounded across central Baghdad.
Three approaching security guards were injured by the ignition blast, police said.
Wolfowitz, expressing "profound sympathy" for the victims, said danger persists in Iraq "as long as there are criminals out there staging hit-and-run attacks."