A two-car suicide bomb attack aimed at a hotel used by US officials on central Baghdad’s main street killed six Iraqis and injured dozens on Sunday. The blast which occurred shortly after midday, shook buildings and shattered windows blocks away. ‘‘I saw limbs and pieces of flesh everywhere,’’ security guard Kahin Hussein said. US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel George Krivo said two saloon cars crashed at high speed through the security barrier at the heavily-fortified Baghdad Hotel and exploded. He said both US and Iraqi security guards opened fire on the vehicles and averted a greater tragedy by stopping the cars from reaching the hotel entrance. ‘‘The cars swerved around and attempted to avoid the checkpoint and then there was a detonation and an explosion,’’ he said. Krivo said it was unclear if both cars were packed with explosives or if one of them was a decoy to breach security barriers so the other would have a clear run at the hotel. The hotel is widely thought to be used by members of the CIA, officials of the US-led coalition and their Iraqi partners in the Governing Council as well as US contractors. Iraqi police Chief Ahmad Ibrahim said he suspected supporters of ousted president Saddam Hussein or Al Qaeda guerrillas. The bombing deals a further blow to US President George W. Bush as he seeks to bolster support for his Iraq policies. ‘‘Iraq has just become a place of death, hatred and explosions,’’ said witness Safa Adil, who said he saw people diving to the ground and dying around him as the blast struck.(Reuters )
