TA-ATTACKS: Rocket Attack at Baghdad Sheraton Hotel

Two rockets struck the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad, and it is now on fire. Immediately following the strikes, "very heavy" automatic gunfire was heard either in the hotel's lobby or just outside it. Video from the scene shows mild structural damage to the lobby area. No injuries have been reported.
At this time, a suspicious vehicle has been found near the hotel. Officials are preparing to pre-emptively blow up this vehicle.



This is following the raised alert leave for the Green Zone.
news.yahoo.com

Related Stories:
BBC News - Missile attack on Baghdad hotel
english.aljazeera.net - Occupation HQ attacked in Baghdad



[edit on 8-10-2004 by Banshee]

There are still no reports of casulties, but the lower levels of the Sheraton, which houses reporters, and western contractors is damaged.

There are reports of gun fire from US positions following the rocket attack.

CNN Correspondent Brent Sadler said he saw two low-trajectory rockets.

www.cnn.com

I wonder who they were targeting the contractors or the news media.

Thanks for the link phreak_of_nature, keep updating on this one.

Originally posted by marg6043
I wonder who they were targeting the contractors or the news media.

Both?


There are atleast three cars outside that are going to be exploded.

20 floors, only 5 or 6 have people in them.

Apparently the fire is a burning palm tree outside of the hotel. At least on of the rockets has hit a first floor room. The lobby is littered with shattered glass, and was filled with smoke.

The hotel is across the Tigris river from the Green Zone.

www.reuters.com

Calm Down, Calm Down.

Vice President Cheney called and told me that they're throwing flowers at the feet of our soldiers.

On a more serious note this is just another day in Baghdad with increasing insurgency. Its nothing short of a miracle that civil war hasn't erupted... yet.

TextPanicked residents fled from the building, where the lobby was littered with shattered glass and bits of rubble. A source at Iraq's Interior Ministry said three Russian-made Katyusha rockets were used in the attack.

Are these the old stuff from Russia? where these people is getting all their stuff?

Security guards at the Palestine hotel said two rockets fired from the back of a pickup struck the nearby Sheraton hotel, shattering windows and filling the main lobby of the hotel with smoke and debris.

A security guard speaking on condition of anonymity said private security guards deployed on the roofs in the compound fired at the pickup truck, destroying it.

hosted.ap.org

Seems like their just turning up another notch in the run up to ours, and their elections.

Katyusha's are WW2 era weapons nicknamed "Stalin's Organ" because of the thunderous sound. Its basically a set of rockets mounted on a rail that are all fired in rapid succession so they hit their target even though the accuracy on them is terrible.

Originally posted by marg6043

A source at Iraq's Interior Ministry said three Russian-made Katyusha rockets were used in the attack.

Are these the old stuff from Russia? where these people is getting all their stuff?

It's probably entirely Cold War surplus. everyone and their mothers has it in Iraq.

DE

Thanks for the info,

I am afraid this are they way things are going to be in the days ahead to the elections in january.

Originally posted by Nerdling
Katyusha's are WW2 era weapons nicknamed "Stalin's Organ" because of the thunderous sound. Its basically a set of rockets mounted on a rail that are all fired in rapid succession so they hit their target even though the accuracy on them is terrible.

Actually it was because when they were stacked on the trucks to fire they looked like a large Steam organ.