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       Aug 19th, 2003

In BAGHDAD (Aug. 19) - Unidentified suicide terrorist use truck bomb to explode outside the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding many more.

Among those hurt was Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

''The explosion was caused by a massive truck bomb,'' Bernard Kerik, the senior U.S. police official in Baghdad, said. ''We have evidence to suggest it could have been a suicide attack.''

"The U.N. uses the Canal Hotel in east central Baghdad as the headquarters for a wide number of its agencies, employing hundreds of staff. It was the base for weapons inspectors during the long hunt for Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction." AOL

U.N. official Selim Lone told the BBC rescue workers were struggling to free Vieira de Mello, a 55-year-old Brazilian career diplomat, from the ruins.

''All this happened right below the window of Sergio Vieira de Mello. I guess it was targeted for that,'' Lone said.

The United Nations is playing a limited role in postwar Iraq, with the U.S.-led invasion forces assuming military and civilian control of the country. The U.N.'s main objectives have been the provision of humanitarian aid.

After sharp splits with allies on the U.N. Security Council over the war, Washington has shown little haste in seeking a bigger part for the United Nations in Iraq, although it would like more countries to share the burden of running the country.

The U.S. military says supporters of Saddam, and some foreign militants, are behind a guerrilla campaign that has killed 61 U.S. soldiers since the start of May.

In the latest ambush, a rocket-propelled grenade and gun attack on a U.S. convoy north of Baghdad wounded two American soldiers early Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said foreign militants were entering Iraq from Syria and urged Damascus to cooperate more in stopping the flow, a newspaper reported.

''The truth is that there are still problems and there are still foreign terrorists entering Iraq across the borders from Syria,'' Bremer told the Arab daily al-Hayat. ''We have discussed this with the Syrians and we hope to see better cooperation.'' 


Most of the above information was received from Reuters.

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