Wolfowitz Dodges Rockets in Baghdad Hotel

Rockets Hit Baghdad Hotel Where Wolfowitz Staying
Sun October 26, 2003 12:58 AM ET

By Carol Giacomo
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Anti-American guerrillas attacked the Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying on Sunday with a barrage of rockets, but the No. 2 Pentagon official survived the blasts unharmed, U.S. officials said.

"We have unconfirmed reports of 15 wounded," said a military official. There are no reports of deaths. At least two wounded people were carried out of the hotel on stretchers, said a Reuters journalist at the Rashid Hotel, where the attack occurred at about 6 a.m. local time (11 p.m. EDT Saturday).

Wolfowitz was unharmed and led away by security forces, according to a U.S. defense official at the scene. Witnesses said Wolfowitz, a major force behind the Iraq war, looked composed.

Wolfowitz and senior aides were staying on the 12th floor when the rockets slammed into the hotel several floors below.

Members of his party, who had been dressing ahead of a breakfast meeting on electricity, calmly descended a stairwell past thickening smoke and blood stains. About 200 people, including his party, journalists and U.S. civilian contractors, gathered in the lobby before exiting the building.

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