Landmark Hotels in Baghdad Bombed

Some reports now suggest that at least 36 people have been killed recently in a series of car bombs that went off outside some of Baghdad’s best known international hotels. One of these hotels was the Ishtar Sheraton.

The three huge explosions rocked the Iraqi capital shortly before the government announced the execution of Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al Majid. He was better known as Chemical Ali. It is still unclear if these two events had any kind of connection or not.

The very first explosion went off around 3:40pm at the Ishtar Sheraton hotel. Shortly after this explosion, another bomb went off at the Babylon hotel, which is used by both Iraqi travelers and sometimes for government meetings. The final bomb went off at the al Hamra hotel.

As of yet, there have been no claims of responsibility for the attacks. These attacks do come just six weeks after a series of blasts killed 127 people and prompted widespread protests at the government’s inability to prevent terrorist attacks.

According to reports, 15 victims were killed at the al Hamra explosion and another 14 at the Sheraton. The remaining were killed at the Baylon, while two policemen were killed in the attacks. Baghdad’s top military spokesman, Major General Qassim al Moussawi, said suicide bombers were involved in all three attacks.

The government did go on to confirm the execution of al Majid. The execution took place about a week after he was sentenced to death for the poison gas attacks that killed more than 5,000 Kurds back in 1988 in the town of Halabja.