UPDATE 1-Loud blast shakes Baghdad centre

reuters | 04/09/07

[se99tp]

UPDATE 1-Loud blast shakes Baghdad centre UPDATE 1-Loud blast shakes Baghdad centre (Updates with details) BAGHDAD, July 9 (Reuters) - A loud blast shook central Baghdad on Friday, sending a plume of white smoke into the air, and a U.S. security contractor said a mortar bomb had landed near a hotel housing Americans. "We had a mortar attack," the contractor told Reuters near the Al-Sadeer hotel as ambulances and police cars, sirens wailing, rushed to the scene. Witnesses said there were several injuries. A Reuters correspondent said the blast appeared to have occurred near the hotel, although this could not be immediately confirmed. The U.S. military was not immediately available for comment.

[Williams]

So far today the "20,000 insurgents" have fired one mortar round?

[dts32041]

If isn't a 240 mm, then it isn't a loud mortar, unless it lands in your back pocket.

[se99tp]

UPDATE 2-Baghdad mortar strike kills child -witnesses BAGHDAD, July 9 - A mortar strike near a hotel in central Baghdad killed one child and wounded three people on Friday, emergency workers said.

"One child was killed and two people were injured," said Ahmed Fadil, an ambulance driver who raced to the site of the explosion. Hospital staff later said three people were wounded in the attack, near a hotel used by American contractors.

"We had a mortar attack," one of the contractors told Reuters near the al-Sadeer hotel as ambulances and police cars, sirens wailing, rushed to the scene.

Shortly after the blast, a woman supported by two men staggered along the street, shouting: "My son died, my son died." "I saw a small child was killed, and another was injured, and taken to the hospital," said witness Ammar Ahmed, 17. He said the boy who was killed was about 10 years old.

The U.S. military was not immediately available for comment.

[Pete98]

Those Jews certainly do get around...

/s