Posted on 09/11/2002 3:39:35 PM PDT by HAL9000
A small hotel destroyed by a violent explosion in Addis Ababa
Wednesday September 11, 2002 - 22h18 GMT
Addis Ababa, 12 seven (AFP) - an explosion of unspecified origin destroyed Wednesday evening a small hotel in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, making several victims, according to testimonys' collected on the spot by the AFP.
The explosion took place around 21H20 local (18H20 GMT) in a very animated district of the capital whereas the Ethiopian ones célèbraient their New year, indicated several witnesses.
The police force established a vast perimeter of safety around the Tigray hotel, located close to the district of Piazza (northern of Addis Ababa), which was destroyed by the explosion.
The origin of the explosion had not been given little after midnight (21h00. It had been the target more five years ago of a terrorist attack allotted at the time with the separatist rebellion armed with the Face with Release Oromo (OLF).
No indication was also available on the precise number of the victims.
According to first testimonys', many victims could be in the debris. The Tigray hotel, which was on two levels (LMBO-of-roadway and first stage), employs a score of people. It was full in this day with New Ethiopian year.
The ambulances and the firemen started their operations of help. Several ambulances transported in particular people burned towards the hospital of Black Lion, according to these same sources which specify to have seen some calcined cars.
One hour and half after the explosion, the building always burned whereas a thick smoke surrounded the places.
Federal police cars were present on the spot. The Ethiopian authorities still officially did not react Wednesday evening.
Monday evening, the police force had carried out surprised inspections of vehicles in several districts of the metropolis. The operation had then made it possible to discover several weapons with fire held by motorists not having a gun licence.
Last 5 August, six people had been slightly wounded after the explosion of a grenade in a hotel of the locality of Jijiga, in the south-east of Ethiopia.
But the Ethiopian agency ENA, which reported the events by quoting regional police sources, had given a report on no claim related to the explosion of the grenade.
In 1996, attacks made in particular against the governmental hotels Ghion and Wabe Shebelle of Addis Ababa, the Short-nap cloth Hotel of Saying Dawa, as well as an attempted murder against the current permanent representative of Ethiopia near the United Nations, Abdulmejid Hussein, federal Minister for Transport and Telecommunications at the time of the facts, had been asserted by Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya, which is opposed to the mode of Addis Ababa.
It is about a fundamentalist organization somalienne shown by Washington to be close to network Al-Qaïda of Oussama Ben Laden.
We have an embassy there???
"Now, settle down, Joe. Let's run through those explosives calculations again...whoops, there's the problem! You moved the decimal to the RIGHT and not the LEFT when you did long division. You gotta do something about that dyslexia, I'm tellin' you..."
Here is the web page.
The American embassy, and or the Hotel in the area of Tigray hotel, located close to the district of Piazza (northern of Addis Ababa), must be north of town off the map. As I don't see this area on the map....
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