Iraq: US Deputy Defence Secretary Mr Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the war in Iraq, yesterday emerged unscathed from a rocket attack on his Baghdad hotel at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Up to eight rockets were fired at the heavily guarded Rashid Hotel, which houses senior American government officials and military personnel.
One US officer and 15 others were injured, among them a British civilian employee who was described as being in a serious but stable condition.
Last night two more explosions were heard in the same area of central Baghdad but Mr Wolfowitz was believed to have left the Rashid by then.
Yesterday's earlier attack occurred after a multiple rocket launcher, disguised as an electricity generator, was driven to within a few hundred metres of the hotel.
The launcher, carried in a trailer, was unhitched outside a park and a timing device set off, releasing the devastating rocket barrage.
Three gaping holes and rows of smashed windows could be seen on the ninth floor of the hotel, which was targeted a month ago in a rocket-propelled grenade attack that did little damage.
Mr Wolfowitz was staying with senior aides on the 12th floor, well above the area hit by rockets, and did not appear to be the target of attack.
A military official at the scene said: "This was a sophisticated attack using heavy weaponry that the attackers knew would cause a lot of damage. They were able to get within easy shooting range of the hotel and just dropped the trailer off and started shooting." Witnesses to the rocket attack described a series of huge blasts and billowing smoke as 200 people, including US officials, contractors and journalists, fled the hotel, some still in their pyjamas.
Mr Hamoudi Mutlab, an employee at the hotel who lived nearby, was wakened by the early-morning blasts.
"The explosions were so loud I thought it was the house next door that was being attacked. My children were very scared. I ran outside to see clouds of smoke coming out of the hotel."
Yesterday the hotel and a nearby conference centre complex were sealed off and helicopters patrolled overhead.
A shaken-looking Mr Wolfowitz described the attack as "the desperate acts of a dying regime of criminals", although he could not guarantee that the hotel could be fully protected.
Mr Wolfowitz, on his second visit to Baghdad in three months, was here to herald the reconstruction process and improvements in the security situation, including the lifting of a six-month curfew in Baghdad for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that started yesterday.