Iraq Watch: October 24, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three massive, nearly simultaneous car bombs rocked downtown Baghdad Monday evening killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more in a coordinated attack.

The blasts targeted the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, which are home to many foreign journalists in Iraq. The Associated Press, which has a bureau in the Palestine, caught the three explosions on video. The bombings were also captured on nearby security cameras.

The first suicide bomber struck at 5:21 p.m. along the famous Firdous Square next to the compounds concrete blast walls leveling a large section of the structure.

At 5:23 p.m. a second suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near the 14th Ramadan mosque on the opposite side of the square after apparently failing to breach the highly fortified complex located across the Tigris river from the 'Green Zone'.

The third suicide bomber, driving a cement truck loaded with explosives, was able to penetrate the hotels security fortress before detonating his vehicle at 5:25 p.m. The truck appeared to detonate prematurely after being engaged by Iraqi and American forces guarding the hotels. As one security source in Iraq put it, "If the cement truck driven by a suicide bomber had not been stopped in time by the guards who opened fire, it would have totally devastated the Sheraton."

The blasts, which could be felt for miles, sent up massive clouds of smoke over the city's early-evening skyline.

Separately, a series of roadside bombings and drive-by shootings on Monday left at least two Iraqi security forces, three municipal workers, and four civilians dead in Baghdad.

Also in the capital city, Iraqi police found the bodies of eight unidentified people. The five men and three women were all discovered handcuffed and shot to death.

In Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, insurgents killed 12 Iraqi construction workers who were in the process of building a police station in the city.

Meanwhile, two employees of Morocco's embassy in Iraq have gone missing according to AFP. The two disappeared while traveling on the road between Baghdad and Amman, Jordan.

Also Monday, the U.S. military announced the death of a U.S. Marine who was killed yesterday by small-arms fire during combat operations in Ramadi.

In northern Iraq, militants launched mortars at oil and gas pipelines west of Kirkuk causing considerable damage according to officilals from Iraq's Northern Oil Company.