AMMAN/BAGHDAD, 8 August 2003 — A massive car bomb exploded outside the Jordanian Embassy in the Iraqi capital yesterday, hurling a car onto a nearby rooftop and body parts and a severed head across the street.
At least 11 people, including two children and one woman, were killed and 65 wounded.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US forces in Iraq, said there were eight confirmed deaths and labeled the attack a “terrorist” bombing.
Elsewhere in the capital, US troops exchanged fire with gunmen in nearby buildings after a blast set a Humvee vehicle ablaze. At least one Iraqi bystander was killed as US soldiers sprayed the area with gunfire. His body lay spread-eagled on the road, blood oozing from his head onto the baking-hot tarmac.
A US Army spokeswoman said there had been an improvised bomb attack and a firefight in the area, and two US soldiers from the 1st Armored Division had been wounded.
The army said that in an earlier gunbattle in central Baghdad on Wednesday night, guerrillas killed two American soldiers and wounded another, along with an Iraqi interpreter. The deaths brought to 55 the number of US troops killed in hostile action since May 1.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell phoned his Jordanian counterpart and pledged to beef up security around the embassy, a Jordanian Foreign Ministry official said in Amman. Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher said: “I told him that we want a full investigation and he said that they will do it.”
Moasher said his ministry had requested that embassy employees be transferred to Fallujah, 50 km (31 miles) west of Baghdad, where there is a Jordanian field hospital. “We want them transferred there not for medical treatment but for security reasons because the hospital is guarded by Jordanian security forces.”
Jordanian Information Minister Nabil Al-Sharif condemned the “cowardly terrorist attack.” “This criminal act will only boost our determination to continue our support for the brotherly Iraqi people,” he said.
Sharif said the Jordanian charge d’affaires in Baghdad was outside the embassy at the time of the blasts. He said there were incidents of looting at the embassy after the explosions.
Jordanian officials said all the identified dead were Iraqis. Six Jordanian Embassy staff were wounded but were in stable condition.
The Jordanian consul, Karim Shushan, was among the wounded, said Ahmed Al-Bakri, a doctor at the Yarmuk Hospital. Shushan suffered a fracture in the right leg and right thigh and was also treated for internal injuries, he said.
Immediately after the explosion, dozens of angry Iraqis stormed the embassy complex, tearing up the Jordanian flag and ripping up and burning pictures of King Abdallah and his father, the late King Hussein.
When US troops and Iraqi police arrived, about 30 minutes after the explosion, the crowd was forced out amid shouting. The troops yelled at them as they left, but even outside the embassy, the crowd spotted a Jordanian Embassy employee and started hurling rocks at him. Police escorted the employee to safety and US soldiers fired a warning shot, forcing the mob to disperse.
Witnesses said the bomb was planted in a minibus parked outside the walled embassy compound and detonated remotely. Many cars were gutted and two bodies were seen still sitting in the vehicles. “I was sitting in the reception. I heard the first explosion, I ran out and then there was another explosion. Many employees were inside the embassy as well as Iraqis and Jordanians. Smoke filled the street,” said Shaheed Mazloum, 50, an Iraqi guard at the embassy.
Political circles in Jordan said the explosion came in response to King Abdallah’s decision to host two daughters of Saddam Hussein and his grandchildren a week ago. Some pointed fingers at Ahmed Chalabi, chairman of the Iraqi National Conference, who was wanted by Jordanian judicial authorities in connection with alleged misappropriation of funds from a bank.
