17 people are reported to have been killed and dozens wounded by a massive truck bomb that ripped through the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad today. The dead included the top UN official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Dozens of ambulances and several helicopters were ferryingcasualties from the scene of the blast. Many people are still believed to be trapped in the rubble.
The front of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad collapsed as asuspected suicide bomber in a truck set off a massive explosion that torethrough the building.
One UN official said a yellow cement truck crashed into the building and blewup, sending a huge cloud of smoke into the sky over the Iraqi capital.
A top US official said there was evidence to suggest a suicide bomber hadcarried out the attack, which blew out windows as far as a mile away.
UN worker Mr Salim Lome said the blast was directly under the office of the Brazilian UN chief,which was completely wrecked.
"It was a huge bomb," said Mr Lome, who escaped with minor injuries.Several floors of the shattered building had collapsed on top of each other atthe front of the building, and rescuers scrambled over the rubble.
"It may have been a suicide bomber. There is evidence to suggest it,"Mr Bernard Kerik, the former New York city police commissioner who is rebuildingthe Iraqi police force, said at the scene.
One reporter saw 40 injured people receiving first aid in a nearby garden.
"I can't move. I can't feel my legs and arms. Dozens of people I know arestill under the ruins," said Majid Al-Hamaidi, 43, a driver for the WorldBank.
UN employee Ms Alice Yacoub said she was sitting in the cafeteria when the blastwent off. "Everything came down on our head, I can't find my colleagues and Iam worried about them," she said.
"My colleague Talal is still under the rubble and he will die if somebodydoesn't help him soon," said Jwan Al-Jaff, a UN travel agent.
One wounded man had a yard-long, inch-thick aluminium rod driven into his facejust below his right eye.
He was able to speak and identified himself as a security consultant for theInternational Monetary Fund.
He said he had just arrived in Iraq over the weekend.A senior Unicef official was also seriously wounded in the blast, UN officialssaid.
In the road outside the compound, US troops shouted as they cleared the areaof residents.Dozens of American Humvees were at the scene and Black Hawk helicoptershovered above. Some were ferrying the wounded away for treatment.
Mr Nazar Hababa, a UN driver, was covered in blood as he recounted seeing Iraqisand foreigners injured in the rubble."My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," oneIraqi nearby said.
The UN headquarters was based in a former hotel - the Canal - and its weaponsinspectors worked out of the building before the war.The UN distributes humanitarian aid and has been developing programmes aimedat boosting Iraq's emerging free press, justice system and monitoring of humanrights.
The United States failed to win the backing of the UN Security Council beforeit invaded Iraq on March 20th, and since major fighting ended in April, Washingtonhas been reluctant to let the UN play much of a role in rebuilding the country.
The Canal Hotel operates more as an office building than a hotel. Thecafeteria is a popular place for aid workers and journalists to meet.The three-floor building houses the offices of most UN agencies with theexception of Unicef and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
AP