Terror hits Baghdad New Year's Eve party

December 31 2003

By Ned Parker

Baghdad - At least four people were killed and a dozen wounded when a powerful car bomb ripped through a popular Baghdad restaurant packed with revellers on New Year's Eve. Witnesses said they saw several bodies in the rubble of the Nabil restaurant in the upmarket Karrada district of Baghdad, which was gutted by Wednesday night's blast.

"Four to five people were killed and at least 12 wounded," Iraqi police lieutenant Amir Bashir told AFP. Iraqi police and US soldiers had bolstered security in the Iraqi capital for fear of more attacks over the New Year holiday as guerrillas continued to target US troops in crowded neighbourhoods.

Flames and smoke spewed into the night sky, swallowing up one car by the restaurant. Sirens wailed, and fire engines and police lined the street, as several people wandered around in shock, with blood staining their clothes and faces. "It was a car bomb," a US soldier said, taking pictures of the carnage. "A car pulled up and there was an explosion."

More than eight months after the fall of Baghdad, US troops are still battling an insurgency, despite the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on December 13, and US forces said they had received intelligence warnings of attacks on Baghdad in the run-up to the Christmas-New Year period.

"Anytime we perceive the enemy will try to attack us, to take advantage of one of our holidays or one of our important dates in our history, we always take a posture of extra vigilance," said US Brigadier General Martin Dempsey, whose First Armoured Division patrols the capital. On Christmas Day, rebels launched a series of attacks on a major hotel, three foreign embassies, and the headquarters compound of the US-led coalition, although there were no deaths.