iraq - un bomb - 16 dead...

Ya wonder why they'd hit the UN who was against the war???

Gutless pieces of shite.

August 20, 2003

THE UN envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, died today after being caught in the car bomb blast at the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan confirmed with "deepest regret" the death of UN special representative for Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello in an attack on the world body's headquarters in Baghdad today, the UN said in a statement. UN envoy 'chief troubleshooter'

"The secretary general has to announce with deepest regret that it has been confirmed Sergio Vieira de Mello was killed in this morning's attack on the UN premises," spokesman Fred Eckhard said, noting that a formal statement was forthcoming. Report

At least sixteen people were killed in the bomb blast that ripped through the UN headquarters, said a witness, while medical sources said at least 53 people were wounded.

"I found nine of my friends dead buried in the rubble," said Nabil Agob Hagabian, a UN employee, at the Al-Khindi hospital where he was waiting to find out the fate of two African friends wounded in the blast.

Hagabian had rushed out after the blast to rescue the wounded at the Canal Hotel in the northeast of the capital.

Meanwhile, an admissions clerk at Al-Khindi said 27 people had been admitted there. Another 10 were admitted to the Ibn al-Nafis hospital, while two more were admitted to Baghdad's Italian Hospital, medical sources told AFP.

Earlier at the site of the blast, coalition officials and police confirmed there were dead in the attack.

"There are confirmed dead. I cannot say how many," Bernard Kerik, the coalition's advisor to the interior ministry, told reporters outside the site of the blast.

An Iraqi police officer said he had carried out bodies.

"I carried out several bodies," said the officer, who refused to give his name, amid a steady traffic of blood-stained bodies being carried out on stretchers.

A UN official in New York said the blast killed one person and injured 32 others.

But UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the toll was likely to increase.

A UN driver said he saw Iraqis and foreigners injured in the wreckage. An Associated Press reporter said he could see nine people being carried out of the hotel on stretchers.

Sgt. Amy Abbott said the 4.30pm (10.30pm last night AEST) blast was caused by a car bomb. She said military ambulances and security forces were at the scene. She said she did not yet have casualty figures and did not know if anyone had been killed.

Nazar Hababa, the UN driver, was covered in blood as he recounted seeing victims in the rubble.

"At 4.30pm we heard a big explosion. It was caused by a rocket, said Adnan Al-Jabouri, a second UN driver at the hotel.

The force of the blast, which knocked out windows up to a mile away from the scene, destroyed several cars, including one that was on fire.

He said the explosion destroyed a significant part of the building, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York. Hotel home to UN since '91

Dozens of US Humvees were at the scene and at least two Black Hawk helicopters hovered above. Black smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air.

United Nations weapons inspectors worked out of the hotel during the period before the war.

"My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," a resident in the area around the hotel said.

The United Nations distributes humanitarian aid and is developing programs aimed at boosting Iraq's emerging free press, justice system and monitoring of human rights.

The US failed to win the backing of the UN Security Council before it invaded Iraq on March 20, and since major fighting ended in April, the US has been reluctant to let the United Nations play a large role in rebuilding the country.