Canal Hotel bombing explained

Canal Hotel bombing
Partof:Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006) and Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)
Location:Baghdad, Iraq
Target:United Nations headquarters
Date:19 August 2003
Time-Begin:16:28
Timezone:GMT +3
Type:Truck bomb
Fatalities:23
Injuries:100+
Perps:Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad
Motive:

The Canal Hotel bombing was a suicide truck bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, during the afternoon of 19 August 2003. It killed 23 people, including the United Nations' Special Representative in Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello, and wounded over 100, including human rights lawyer and political activist Amin Mekki Medani. The blast targeted the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq created just five days earlier. (The United Nations had used the hotel as its headquarters in Iraq since the early 1990s.) The 19 August bombing resulted in the withdrawal within weeks of most of the 600 UN staff members from Iraq.[1] These events were to have a profound and lasting impact on the UN's security practices globally.[2] [3]

The attack was followed by a suicide car bomb attack on 22 September 2003 near U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing a security guard and wounding 19 people.[4]

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of terrorist organization Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, in April 2004 claimed responsibility for the 19 August blast.[5]

Bombing

In his book The Prince of the Marshes, British politician and writer Rory Stewart recounts his experiences at the Canal Hotel on the day of the bombing.The explosion occurred while Martin Barber, director of the UN's Mine Action Service (UNMAS), was holding a press conference. The explosion damaged a spinal cord treatment center at the hospital next door and a U.S. Army Civil-Military Operations Centre located at the rear of the Canal Hotel, and the resulting shockwave was felt over a mile away. The blast was caused by a suicide bomber driving a truck bomb. The vehicle has been identified as a large 2002 flatbed Kamaz (manufactured in Eastern Europe and part of the former Iraqi establishment's fleet).[6] Investigators in Iraq suspected the bomb was made from old munitions, including a single 500-pound aerial bomb, from Iraq's pre-war arsenal.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) for Iraq (UNOHCI) was located directly beneath the office of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and suffered a direct hit. Of the eight staff and one visitor in the office at the time, seven were killed instantly, but de Mello and Gil Loescher were critically wounded and trapped in debris under the collapsed portion of the building. An American soldier, First Sergeant William von Zehle, crawled down through the collapsed building and worked to extricate the two men. He was joined later by another American soldier, Staff Sergeant Andre Valentine. The two men spent the next three hours trying to extricate the two survivors without benefit of any rescue equipment. Loescher was rescued after having his crushed legs amputated by the soldiers, but Vieira de Mello died before he could be removed.[7]

According to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Vieira de Mello was specifically targeted in the blast. The reason given by al-Zarqawi for targeting Vieira de Mello was that he had helped East Timor become an independent state (see the Indonesian occupation of East Timor). Zarqawi said that Vieira de Mello had participated in the unlawful removal of territory from the Islamic Caliphate and was therefore a thief and a criminal.[8] [9]

Second bomb

The bombing was followed on September 22, 2003, by another car bomb outside the Canal Hotel. The blast killed the bomber and an Iraqi policeman and wounded 19 others, including UN workers. The second attack led to the withdrawal of some 600 UN international staff from Baghdad, along with employees of other aid agencies. In August 2004, de Mello's replacement, Ashraf Qazi, arrived in Baghdad along with a small number of staff.[10]

List of victims

NameAgeNationalityPosition
Sérgio Vieira de Mello55Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Iraq
Nadia Younes57Chief of Staff for Vieira de Mello
Fiona Watson35Member of Vieira de Mello's staff, political affairs officer
Jean-Sélim Kanaan33

Member of Vieira de Mello's staff, political officer
Richard Hooper40Senior advisor to the UN Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Political Affairs
Manuel Martín-Oar56Naval captain, assistant to the Spanish special ambassador to Iraq
Christopher Klein-Beekman32UN Children's Fund's program coordinator
Reham Al-Farra29Department of Public Information, Deputy Spokesperson
Martha Teas47UNOHCI Manager
Leen Assad Al-Qadi32UNOHCI Information Assistant
Ranillo Buenaventura47UNOHCI Secretary for Vieira de Mello
Reza Hosseini43UNOHCI Humanitarian affairs officer
Ihsan Taha Husein26UNOHCI Driver
Basim Mahmoud Utaiwi40UNOHCI Security guard
Raid Shaker Mustafa Al-Mahdawi32United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)
Gillian Clark47Christian Children's Fund
Arthur Helton54Director of peace and conflict studies at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations
Alya Ahmad Souza54World Bank
Khidir Saleem SahirCivilian
Ali Mohammed HindiCivilian
Saad Hermis Abona33Working for a UN subcontractor (Canal Hotel cafeteria worker)
Omar Kahtan Mohamed Al-Orfali34Driver/interpreter, Christian Children's Fund
Emaad Ahmed Salman al-Jobody45Electrician

Marilyn Manuel, a member of Vieira de Mello's staff from the Philippines, was originally listed as missing and presumed dead in the collapsed section of the building.[11] However, she had been evacuated to an Iraqi hospital which did not notify the UN of her presence. Her survival was confirmed four days later.[12]

Suspects

In an audiotape, published 6 April 2004 on a website and "probably authentic," according to the CIA, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed credit for a number of attacks, including the 19 August 2003 bombing on U.N. quarters in Baghdad.[5] By December 2004,The Jamestown Foundation considered al-Zarqawi and his Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad responsible for the attack.[13]

In January 2005, a top bombmaker for al-Zarqawi's group, Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was captured by the coalition and claimed his associates made the bomb used in the attack. On 16 December 2005, Iraqi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Mullah Halgurd al-Khabir, a commander of Ansar al-Sunna, in connection with the attack.

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera identified the suicide bomber as Algerian national Fahdal Nassim.[14] Other suspects included Baathists, militant Sunni and Shiite groups, organized crime, and tribal elements. Blame was initially thought to lie with Ansar al-Islam, which was thought at the time to be al-Zarqawi's group. An otherwise unknown group called the "Armed Vanguards of the Second Mohammed Army" claimed they were responsible for the attack.[15]

Awraz Abd Aziz Mahmoud Sa'eed, known as al-Kurdi, confessed to helping plan the attack for al-Zarqawi. Al-Kurdi was captured by U.S. forces in 2005, judged and sentenced to death by an Iraqi court, and executed by hanging on 3 July 2007.[16]

Responses

The suicide bombing of the United Nations in Baghdad drew overwhelming condemnation. Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, commented that the bombing would not stop the organization's efforts to rebuild Iraq, and said: "Nothing can excuse this act of unprovoked and murderous violence against men and women who went to Iraq for one purpose only: to help the Iraqi people recover their independence and sovereignty, and to rebuild their country as fast as possible, under leaders of their own choosing."

The World Humanitarian Day

On 11 December 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/63/139 on "Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Assistance of the United Nations," which, among other declarations, designated 19 August as World Humanitarian Day to recognize all humanitarian and United Nations and associated personnel who have worked in the promotion of the humanitarian cause and those who have lost their lives while doing so.

See also

Films

In 2004, Gil Loescher's daughter, documentary filmmaker Margaret Loescher, made a critically acclaimed film about her father's experiences called Pulled from the Rubble.

A documentary produced in 2009 and a movie released in 2020, both titled Sergio, deal with the life of Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Canal Hotel bombing.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: 11 August 2007. Mixed feelings over UN Iraq role. BBC News. 22 February 2015. Ghattas. Kim. 1 September 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220901051228/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6941560.stm. live.
  2. Web site: 21 August 2003. Press Briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Afghanistan. United Nations. February 6, 2011. United Nations. United Nations. 17 July 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220717022016/https://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusnews.asp?NewsID=597&sID=1. live.
  3. Web site: 19 August 2004. UN wrestling with security questions one year after Baghdad bombing – Annan. United Nations. February 6, 2011. United Nations. United Nations. 28 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220328062244/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11679&Cr=19&Cr1=August. live.
  4. News: Blast Near Baghdad U.N. Compound . CBS News . September 22, 2003 . February 22, 2015 . October 25, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121025082132/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/22/iraq/main574491.shtml . live .
  5. News: April 7, 2004. CIA: Zarqawi tape 'probably authentic'. CNN. 22 February 2015. Benson. Pam. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20121003001701/http://articles.cnn.com/2004-04-07/world/zarqawi.tape_1_al-zarqawi-zarqawi-organization-abu-musab-zarqawi?_s=PM%3AWORLD. 3 October 2012.
  6. Web site: Baghdad Bomb Crude But Deadly. CBS News. 21 August 2003. 11 December 2014. 14 June 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130614054446/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/21/iraq/main569431.shtml. live.
  7. Web site: OCHA . 2023-05-10 . OCHA . en . 2023-02-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230225074652/https://www.unocha.org/node . live .
  8. Web site: 2011-07-16 . The UN bombers . 2023-05-10 . 2011-07-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110716065428/http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog/?p=1687 . dead .
  9. Web site: April 11, 2017. Don't bother looking for explanations for terrorist attacks. Christopher. Hitchens. Slate Magazine. 3 October 2005. 31 August 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110831103308/http://www.slate.com/id/2127343/. live.
  10. http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1572740,00.html News 24
  11. Web site: ReliefWeb - Informing humanitarians worldwide . 2023-05-10 . reliefweb.int . en . 2023-05-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230509154823/https://reliefweb.int/ . live .
  12. News: First, Terrible News. Then a Call From Iraq Brings Joy. . The New York Times . Diane . Cardwell . 23 August 2003 . 18 February 2017 . 5 April 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120405093356/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/23/nyregion/first-terrible-news-then-a-call-from-iraq-brings-joy.html . live .
  13. Gambill. Gary. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi: A Biographical Sketch. Terrorism Monitor. 16 December 2004. 2. 24. The Jamestown Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930185929/http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=400&&issue_id=3179. 30 September 2007. 20 February 2015.
  14. Web site: Terrorism Monitor - The Jamestown Foundation. 11 December 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930183013/http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?issue_id=3467. 30 September 2007.
  15. Web site: Explainers . 2023-05-10 . Council on Foreign Relations . en . 2023-04-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230426114837/https://www.cfr.org/explainers . live .
  16. Web site: National Post . 2023-05-10 . nationalpost . en-CA . 2013-09-28 . https://archive.today/20130928230142/http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=eb1cec1e-566d-4f9f-afcc-f794145f64b7&p=2 . live .