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Wolfowitz: Attack on coalition hotel 'will not deter us'

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  • Wolfowitz: Attack on coalition hotel 'will not deter us'

    Wolfowitz: Attack on coalition hotel 'will not deter us'

    U.S. soldier killed in rocket attack, 15 wounded

    Sunday, October 26, 2003 Posted: 1:55 PM EST (1855 GMT)

    BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the coalition's mission in Iraq will remain unchanged after his heavily guarded Baghdad hotel was attacked Sunday in a deadly barrage of rockets.

    Wolfowitz, the number-two civilian at the Pentagon, was unhurt in the early morning rocket attack on the Al Rashid Hotel, which killed a U.S. soldier and wounded 15 other people, a coalition spokesman said.

    Sunday evening, two explosions were heard in the same area as the hotel attack, U.S. military officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

    In the attack on the Al Rashid, between eight and ten rockets slammed into the hotel's north side, said Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the commander of the U.S. 1st Armored Division. Others fell short of the building, he said.

    Wolfowitz was in his room on the same side of the hotel -- home to many coalition officials -- at the time of the attack, an aide told CNN.

    Fire broke out on one floor and several other floors were also damaged, officials said. Most of the damage was limited to one side of the hotel between floors three and 11. Wolfowitz was staying on the 12th floor.

    The wounded included seven U.S. civilians, four American soldiers and four people identified as non-coalition personnel, according to a coalition spokesman.

    "This terrorist act will not deter us from completing our mission which is to help the Iraqi people free themselves from the type of criminals who did this and to protect the American people from this kind of terrorism," Wolfowitz said shortly after the assault.

    U.S. officials said Wolfowitz's schedule would be unchanged in the wake of the incident.

    A main Pentagon supporter of the Iraq war, Wolfowitz was paying his second visit to Iraq in three months and stressed the need to speed up the formation of a new Iraqi army, police force, border guard and civil defense corps.

    A "quick reaction force" was dispatched to the scene in response to the attack, the coalition statement said.

    A witness told CNN he saw the car from which the missiles were fired near a busy intersection not far from the hotel.

    A small blue trailer, which appeared to contain tubes, was searched by U.S. soldiers near the hotel and was used to fire the missiles, according to Dempsey.

    "There is no doubt it required some reconnaissance and rehearsal," Dempsey said. He said it "probably took some time" to construct the trailer. "No question it required some preparation," he said.

    Dempsey said he doubted that Wolfowitz was the target of the attack, which he said he believed was timed to coincide with Saturday's reopening of the July 14th Bridge, a major Baghdad route across the Tigris River. (Bridge opens)

    Wolfowitz, who was inside the hotel when the rockets hit, said the United States would be "unrelenting" in its mission in Iraq despite attacks which he blamed on "criminals who are trying to destabilize this country."

    He vowed to continue with his Iraq tour.

    "The Americans who are here doing this job -- civilians as well as military -- are heroes and I want to express our profound sympathy for the victims of this attack," he said.

    "The criminals who are trying to destabilize this country abused and tortured Iraq for 35 years and we have ended that mass oppression," Wolfowitz said. "There are a few who refuse to accept the reality of a new and free Iraq. We will be unrelenting in our pursuit of them."

    In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the attack should be seen in the light of an overall improving security situation. "We can't minimize the danger, but at the same time let's take account of the progress that we're making as well," Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition."

    "We have increased the number of hours people can stay out in Baghdad, and people want to stay out," Powell said. "The economy is starting to thrive in Baghdad. We opened the bridge that goes across the river so that people can go back and forth."

    The Al Rashid Hotel is close to the Iraqi presidential palace and was built by former leader Saddam Hussein and his elite troops during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

    It is now a heavily fortified complex used by coalition officials on the west bank of the Tigris River.

    Three rockets were fired at the hotel by guerrillas on September 27, but no one was wounded.

    Since the Iraq war began in March, 348 U.S. troops have been killed, including 224 in hostile fire. Since Bush on May 1 declared the end of major combat, 209 U.S. troops have died -- 109 in hostile fire.

    There is no reliable source for Iraqi civilian or combatant casualty figures, either during the period of major combat or after May 1. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP reported that the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals and the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.

    Blackhawk attacked
    Wolfowitz had visited Tikrit on Saturday, hours before the crew of a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter was attacked after it landed east of that city, an official at the Coalition Press Information Center told CNN.

    The CPIC official said the Blackhawk landed under full control and did not make a hard landing as previously reported.

    One soldier was injured when unknown assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the helicopter crew after the landing, the CPIC official said.

    http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...tel/index.html
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."
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