A cement truck packed with explosives detonated outside the offices of the top U.N. envoy in Iraq on Tuesday, killing him and 19 other people and devastating the U.N. headquarters here in an unprecedented suicide attack against the world body. At least 100 people were wounded. The bombing blasted a 6-foot-deep crater in the ground, shredded the facade of the Canal Hotel housing U.N. offices and stunned an organization that had been welcomed by many Iraqis, in contrast to the U.S.-led occupation forces. Except for a newly built concrete wall, U.N. officials at the headquarters refused the sort of heavy security that the U.S. military has put up around some sensitive civilian sites. The United Nations “did not want a large American presence outside,” Salim Lone, the U.N. spokesman in the Iraqi capital, said. Emergency workers pulled bloodied survivors from the rubble and lined up the dead in body bags. Survivors reported other victims still buried. Full Story
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