Press Releases

10/25/05

First day back, bombs greet AP chief in Baghdad

By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- I was seated at a computer terminal when the first blast occurred, a thunderous explosion, clearly very close, followed by a volley of automatic fire. My first thought was a car bomb or perhaps a large rocket. I knew it was close. Someone shouted that the nearby Sheraton Hotel had been hit. I looked at my watch. It was 5:21 p.m.

Moments later a second explosion -- loud but more distant. More gunfire. We decided to leave our work room inside the Palestine Hotel for the relative safety of the hall, protected by internal walls.

Suddenly, at 5:24 p.m., a huge blast rocked the building with a force so intense that we could feel the shock wave. The hallway filled with billowing brown smoke. I thought the hotel had been hit by a missile.

"Everybody put on helmets and body armor," a security adviser shouted.

No one hesitated. We opened the store room door to find the area wrecked. The blast had ripped the sliding glass doors leading to a balcony from their hinges. It was the same in my bedroom. The glass doors were in pieces and bits of metal were scattered around the room. My suitcase was still on the bed, unscathed where I'd put it down just several hours before.

"I'm glad I didn't unpack," I thought.

Bewildered staffers milled about. Some headed for the fire escape door. Some glanced about nervously, panting for breath in the dust. Conversations were at a shout.

"Stay on the floor, stay on the floor," shouted a security adviser. "You're safer here."

We quickly did a head count to determine that no one had been killed or seriously injured.

Three television cameramen stumbled down the hall, holding their heads as blood spilled from their wounds. A security adviser dressed their injuries and once the shooting stopped, escorted them downstairs to a waiting car to drive them to a nearby hospital.

I called the Associated Press's regional headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, to report that we were under attack.

One of our drivers, who had left for home at day's end, telephoned the office. He had seen the attack from the street.

"Three vehicles passed by in high speed toward Firdous Square," he said. "They struck the concrete barriers between the two hotels and exploded. It was the biggest explosion I have ever seen."

It was too dangerous to go outside or even peer out the windows. Security advisers moved up and down the halls, shouting for people to stay away from windows and balconies since there was so much gunfire outside. But security cameras told the story: three explosions within four minutes, right in the square where I had driven just hours before.

It had all seemed so normal -- then.

The sky had been blue, the temperature warm and the streets filled with traffic as I returned Monday to Baghdad after a six-week absence. "How's the situation," I asked my colleague as we drove from the airport to the Palestine. His reply: "It seems to be calming down."

That ended three hours later with the three thunderous explosions, one of which breached the walls protecting the Palestine, home to AP, Fox News, the U.S. government-funded Alhurra TV station, and other international news organizations.

It was not the first attack against the compound, which also includes the Sheraton. But it was clearly the strongest and most determined.

I had slept through one attack when insurgents fired rockets at the hotel on Nov. 21, 2003, from donkey carts.

There would have been no sleeping through this one. It was a well-coordinated assault using three car bombs, one that broke through the high security walls protecting the hotels, and a second on the far side of Firdous Square to divert attention as the third -- a cement truck packed with explosives -- plowed through the hole from the first blast, exploding inside the compound where we had felt relatively safe.

The attack demonstrated one of the truths of Iraq's war: Appearances can deceive.

By all appearances, Baghdad did seem calmer than I had left it in early September. The road from the airport was crowded with traffic -- ordinarily a sure sign that Iraqis themselves are not fearful of attacks. I commented about the extra security -- Iraqi military checkpoints, roving American patrols, some added around the referendum on the constitution Oct. 15.

As we approached the hotel, I noticed more pedestrians than I had remembered -- veiled mothers with children shopping at outdoor food stalls and men whiling away the hours at sidewalk tea stands under a warm afternoon sun.

Also more reassuring were the Iraqi police, directing traffic and manning checkpoints. As we entered Firdous Square behind our hotel, I could see armed Iraqi police -- uniforms crisp and clean and weapons at the ready.

The only sign of a capital in crisis were the long lines at gasoline stations -- ironic in one of the world's great oil-producing countries.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Robert H. Reid, AP correspondent at large, has reported frequently from Iraq since 2003.