Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 18 March 2004 — A huge car bomb exploded at a Baghdad hotel housing foreigners last night, killing at least 27 people and injuring 41 others.

Army Col. Ralph Baker of the 1st Armored Division said rescuers were still searching for victims in the Mount Lebanon Hotel. He said foreigners were among the guests. It was unclear whether a suicide bomber carried out the attack, he said.

Americans, Britons, Egyptians as well as other foreigners were staying at the hotel, resident Faleh Kalhan said.

US soldiers and Iraqi ambulances raced to the scene, and rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the hotel.

The explosion left a crater eight feet wide and 10 feet deep. Five smaller, adjacent buildings were badly damaged. Half a dozen dazed and injured people stumbled from the wreckage. A father cradled his young daughter, who was limp in his arms.

Flames shot skyward, and heavy smoke rose behind a central square from the area of the blast. Trees were on fire, and flames jumped to nearby buildings. Eight cars were on fire, and one vehicle was hurled by the blast into a store.

“It has to be a car bomb. No rocket could cause that amount of damage,” said Pfc. Heath Balick of the US Army’s 1st Armored Division, which is responsible for security in Baghdad.

The administration of President George W. Bush offered prayers for the victims but said such attacks would not change US policy.

“Democracy is taking root in Iraq and there is no turning back,” said Scott McClellan, White House spokesman. “This is a time of testing, but the terrorists will not prevail.”

Several residents said they believed a rocket caused the destruction, but US soldiers said the damage was consistent with that of a car bomb. The hotel was a so-called “soft” target because it did not have concrete blast barriers and other security measures of the kind that protect offices of the US-led coalition and other buildings where Westerners live and work.

Dozens of US soldiers in Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles arrived and started to clear crowds. Bricks, air conditioners, furniture, wires and other debris was blown hundreds of meters from the hotel.

Earlier, two US soldiers tried to help pull bodies from the wreckage of the hotel, but angry Iraqis pushed them back.

The blast shook the nearby Palestine Hotel, where many foreign contractors and journalists are based.

The explosion occurred behind Firdaus Square, where a bronze statue of Saddam Hussein was felled April 9 with the help of US Marines who had just entered the center of the Iraqi capital.

The area of the blast, Karrada, is a mix of residential and commercial buildings.

On March 2, a series of coordinated blasts struck major mosques in Baghdad and the southern city of Karbala. At least 181 people died. Assailants, including suicide bombers, have repeatedly carried bomb attacks in Iraq since August. The targets have included Iraqi police stations, army recruiting centers, the UN headquarters and the offices of the international Red Cross.

— Additional input from agencies