Coordinated attacks on 3 Baghdad hotels kill at least 31

BAGHDAD — Militants bombed three hotel compounds in eastern Baghdad Monday.

The coordinated attacks, which took place within
minutes of one another, targeted facilities that host political events
and are home to businessmen and news agencies. It was the latest
high-profile attack in Baghdad ahead of national elections in early March.

At least 31 people were killed and 89 wounded in the
bombings, according to security officials. The first car bomb exploded
by the Sheraton in eastern Baghdad at 3:40 p.m.

The blast was quickly followed by an explosion
outside of the Babylon hotel, where the government and political
parties hold meetings. Soon after, a car bomb blasted the Hamra hotel
compound, home to several international news agencies, including the
Los Angeles Times.

Witnesses at the Hamra said checkpoint guards had
come under fire from a few men dressed in business suits. During the
firefight, the gate to the compound was opened and a white Kia van entered and exploded in a section of the compound with private homes. The blast ripped open a huge crater.

Witnesses said the impacts of the blasts, within a
space of minutes, badly damaged the hotels and nearby buildings, and
the fatalities could rise as bodies are pulled out of the rubble.

The attacks follow three major bombings since August
on government facilities that killed more than 350 people and have
created a chilling effect in Baghdad, where people had started to believe the situation was improving.

Previous bombings have targeted government
facilities, but these attacks appeared aimed at international news
agencies, nonprofit organizations, businessmen and organizations or
groups doing business in Iraq. With the rise in violence, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government has come under heavy criticism, and discontent has risen among the populace.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the coordinated attacks bore the mark of al-Qaida.

“It is a signature of al-Qaida,” Saad Mutalabi, an
adviser to the Iraqi Cabinet, told Al-Jazeera. “I don’t think any of
the political forces in Iraq would commit such an atrocity. It would not benefit any of them.”

The attack also coincided with the imminent execution ofAli Hassan Majid, the notorious defense minister of former President Saddam Hussein, who was nicknamed “Chemical Ali” for his role in the gassing of rebellious Kurds in the late 1980s.

The bombings follow a controversial decision by an
Iraqi legislative authority to bar more than 500 candidates with
alleged ties to Hussein’s Baath Party from March 7 parliamentary elections.

Vice President Joe Biden visited Iraq
in recent days to persuade Iraqis to reverse the ruling, which many
fear could reignite sectarian tensions between the country’s majority
Shiite Muslims and once-dominant Sunni Arab minority.

—

(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.

Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.