Military bombs used in attack against UN

• Published in: International herald tribune
• Main Author: Neil MacFarquhar and Dexter Filkins
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris New York Times Company 21.08.2003
• Edition: International edition
• Subjects: BAGHDAD
• ISSN: 0294-8052

[L. Paul Bremer] said there were indications that [Sergio Vieira de Mello] had been the target of the attack. The explosion happened just beneath his third-floor office. The suicide bombing marked a brazen assault on the American occupation here, apparently calculated to destroy any sense of security for people charged with reviving Iraq in the aftermath of the war. If anarchy was the goal, it was anarchy that unfolded. Screams and moans rose from the dozens of bloodied UN workers who lay across the courtyard, as American soldiers pulled the living from ruins. Bodies lay about, some missing limbs, others covered with white sheets. Susan Manuel, a UN spokeswoman, said the bombing was the deadliest attack on the organization in its history. The attack came less than a month after the Security Council, relegated to a supporting role in Iraq, voted to endorse the American-backed Iraqi interim government. The bombing seemed intended to intensify the guerrilla war under way against American soldiers, and to increase domestic political pressure on President George W. Bush, who faces growing unhappiness about the course of the American occupation. The White House said Tuesday that Bush had called Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain to discuss the situation in Iraq and in the Middle East. The White House said Bush had also called Brazil's president, Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, to express condolences over the death of Vieira de Mello, who was Brazilian. The dead also included Rick Hooper, the United Nations' chief expert on Arab affairs; Nadia Younes, Vieira de Mello's chief of staff; Ranillo Buenaventura of the relief coordination office; Marilyn Manuel and Jean-Selim Kanaan, employees in Vieira de Mello's office; Chris Klein-Beckman, an official of Unicef; and Fiona Watson of Britain, who worked on the oil-for-food program.