IRAQ: At least 20 people were killed and 13 injured yesterday when suicide bombers launched an orchestrated attack on one of the main bases of international journalists in Baghdad, according to the Iraqi police.
All the victims appear to have been Iraqis outside the hotels, who were caught in the evening rush-hour traffic or manning a police checkpoint. Mouwafak al-Rubaei, Iraq's national security adviser, said the attack was a "very clear" attempt to take over the hotels and snatch journalists as hostages.
One of the bombers drove a car into the outer defence of the complex, which houses the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, the home mainly of broadcasters and news agencies.
The aim appears to have been to clear a path for a second bomber, driving a cement-mixer loaded with explosives, which produced the biggest of three explosions.
The cement-mixer blew up near a US Bradley armoured vehicle protecting the complex, sending up a ball of flame and smoke. The third bomb went off behind a mosque opposite the complex.
"Three cars came from three different roads in succession to create security breaches for terrorists. They were armed with rocket-propelled grenades and light arms," Mr Rubaei told Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"The plan was very clear to us, which was to take security control over the two hotels and to take the foreign and Arab journalists as hostages to use them as a bargain."
He said at least 40 people were injured, most of them passers by.
US commanders have been warning for weeks of spectacular attacks in Baghdad designed to maximise media attention. The attack in the heart of the city, after a relative lull, demonstrates that there are few places left in Iraq beyond the reach of the insurgents.
The hotels overlook Firdous Square, where the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.
The complex is outside the heavily protected Green Zone that houses the US and British embassies, but it too is guarded by a combination of US soldiers and Iraqi police.
Insurgents launched a rocket attack against the Palestine Hotel in October last year and individual western and Iraqi journalists have been kidnapped and killed over the past two years.
The attack comes just days after Rory Carroll, the Guardian's Iraq correspondent, was kidnapped for 36 hours.
The Moroccan foreign ministry said that two of its embassy staff, Abderrahim Boualam, a driver, and Abdelkrim el Mouhafidim, had gone missing after returning by road in an embassy car from a brief trip to Jordan. They are believed to have been kidnapped.
Diplomats had predicted "spikes" in violence in the run-up to the referendum on a new constitution earlier this month, but it passed off relatively peacefully.
The results of the referendum are due to be announced in the next few days. Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi, head of Iraq's electoral commission, told reporters yesterday that the Sunni Arab province of Anbar, heartland of the insurgency, voted 96 per cent No.
Salahaddin province, where Saddam's home town of Tikrit is located, voted 81 per cent No.
Rejection by two-thirds of voters in three provinces is enough to scupper the referendum. The fate of the constitution now rests on Nineveh province, which includes Iraq's third-largest city, Mosul.
Even if the constitution fails, an election scheduled for December to form a new government in January could still go ahead.
In theory, US and British forces could begin a phased withdrawal after the new government takes over.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has announced that all its troops will be out by December 30th.