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A bomb exploded on Thursday at a Baghdad hotel where U.S. television network NBC was based, killing a Somalian guard, in the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting foreigners in Iraq.
Police said the bomb was placed near the Aike Hotel's generator and exploded around 7 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT). Shattered glass was spread across the road outside and many of the hotel's windows were blown out.
"It was a small bomb, because if it was a big bomb it would have destroyed the whole building," Iraqi police Lieutenant-Colonel Salman Abed Karim told Reuters at the scene.
David Moodie, a 44-year-old soundman and engineer with NBC, said he had been in a first-floor room above where the bomb exploded.
"I was awake in bed thinking 'Another day in paradise' and then the bomb went off," said Moodie, wearing shorts, sandals and a T-shirt spattered with blood. "It blew in the windows -- the glass, plaster, everything."
Moodie was wounded in the right arm. He was treated by another member of the NBC team.
After the blast, he said, he wrapped himself in a blanket in case there was any more flying glass. Then he got up, ran out and went to see how his colleagues were.
"It could have been a lot worse," he said.
Moodie said there were about 12-15 NBC people in the building. Some of the team had gone to the southern city of Basra, otherwise there would have been around 20.
U.S. Army Captain Joe Ewers, the local area commander, said he had felt the blast at his base one kilometer south of the hotel. He said the blast seemed to have been caused by a shaped explosive charge. Asked if that would indicate a level of sophistication, he said: "Yes it would."
Raad Juwad, a cook at a restaurant across the road, said he was woken by the blast.
"We were sleeping. We heard the noise," he said. "The building shook and the windows smashed. We came out and saw some people screaming."
On Monday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up close to the United Nations compound in Baghdad, also killing a security guard. On Wednesday, a roadside bomb meant for a U.S. convoy exploded as two civilian buses drove past, killing one Iraqi.
Last month, a suicide truck bombing at the United Nations compound killed 22 people. Attackers have also targeted the Jordanian embassy.
Guerrilla attacks have killed 79 U.S. soldiers since Washington declared major combat over on May 1.
(China Daily September 25, 2003)
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