Photos

I would have posted this yesterday when it happened, but I needed to catch up on business following a special mission the day before for a special friend. :-)

I got to sleep late, chatting with a friend into the wee hours of the morning. Then, I had been awoken three times in the night by nearby explosions. Had me pretty run-down by the time the sun came up. I finally got up at 7 AM.

And then at 7:30, came the close ones. The first one released the adrenaline. I couldn't find the camera! Not seconds later came the second explosion. By now, although thoroughly shaken, I had the camera.

This is a shot from my balcony seconds after the second rocket hit a car in the parking lot of the Baghdad hotel some 200 meters away. There were two injuries in this explosion. The smoke from the burning car ended up enveloping my hotel and filling my room with the stench of burning gasoline, oil and rubber.

The first rocket hit the Sheraton on the opposite side of my hotel, striking the 10th floor hallway to the north rooms.

The the improvised launcher mounted in a minivan that was carrying an additional 7 rockets malfunctioned and exploded. It burned at the side of the mosque that sits across Freedom Square (it's a circle, I don't know why they call it a square) from the Sheraton and Palestine hotels. Although it wasn't reported, shrapnel from the exploding multiple rocket launcher (one piece) hit my hotel, piercing three tempered glass windows on the ground floor.

My nerves are better today and in a way, this was a good thing. The chances of another attack are deminished just after one occurs. Another day, another..., who knows.