| Canal Hotel bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006) | |
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| Location | Baghdad, Iraq |
| Date | 19 August 2003 16:28 – (GMT +3) |
| Target | United Nations headquarters |
Attack type | Truck bomb |
| Deaths | 23 |
| Injured | 100+ |
| Perpetrators | Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad[1] |
| 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.[2] These events were to have a profound and lasting impact on the UN's security practices globally.[3][4]
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.[5]
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.[1]
- ^ a b Benson, Pam (7 April 2004). "CIA: Zarqawi tape 'probably authentic'". CNN. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
- ^ Ghattas, Kim (11 August 2007). "Mixed feelings over UN Iraq role". BBC News. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
- ^ United Nations (21 August 2003). "Press Briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Afghanistan". United Nations. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
- ^ United Nations (19 August 2004). "UN wrestling with security questions one year after Baghdad bombing – Annan". United Nations. Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
- ^ "Blast Near Baghdad U.N. Compound". CBS News. 22 September 2003. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2015.