Posted on 10/15/2003 10:15:32 PM PDT by PatrioticCowboy
Blasts rock coalition headquarters
BAGHDAD:
Two explosions rocked central Baghdad late last night near the headquarters of the US-led Coalitional Provisional Authority (CPA), said CPA spokesman Charles Heatly.
The CPA headquarters is located in toppled president Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace.
Witnesses on the other side of the Tigris river said they heard two large booms in the palace area and saw tanks on the move.
Earlier, unidentified gunmen assassinated the director of a hospital in the southern city of Basra. Colleagues said Haider Al Baaj, chief doctor at Basra's teaching hospital, was shot dead with a single bullet to the head as he was leaving his private clinic at sunset.
The assailant and his accomplice fled.
Elsewhere, one person was injured when Iraqi police fired shots to disperse demonstrators marking the anniversary of a pro-Saddam referendum and protesting a new currency that no longer features the toppled dictator's face.
Underlining US support for the new dinar, US Commerce Secretary Donald Evans attended a ceremony to mark the launch of the bills.
A speeding car fired shots in front of the Baghdad Hotel the site of a car bomb attack three days ago that killed eight people including the bomber, according to witnesses.
Security guards and US soldiers fired back at the car.
Meanwhile, the US Congress opened debate on an $87 billion (BD33bn) appropriation fund for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Iraq's transitional Governing Council, Ayad Allawi, said elections will "definitely" be held next year in the war-torn country, speaking at a summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, in Malaysia.
Syria last night denied assailants had infiltrated Iraq from Syria, following a US military report that several people were killed after having crossed the border and fired at an American helicopter.
You know there is good news in Iraq as I keep trying to tell you. You don't have to keep posting only the bad.
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