THE Palestine Hotel in Baghdad was rocked by three huge bombs yesterday in a carefully co-ordinated attack on one of the highest-profile targets in the Iraq’s capital.

The Iraqi National Security Adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said that twenty people were killed, but the US military said that six civilians were killed and fifteen wounded.

A cement mixer lorry packed with explosives blew a hole in the blast wall that is designed to protect the building — the headquarters of international media organisations since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. Witnesses said that a car bomber cleared a path by ramming into the concrete defences.

None of those killed is thought to have been inside the hotel. Television pictures showed the cement mixer exploding in a ball of flames in Paradise Square.

The assumption is that the insurgents chose the Palestine as a symbolic Western location for a so-called spectacular that they knew would be captured on television. It raises concern that insurgents are escalating their campaign against the media after the kidnap of Rory Carroll, a Guardian correspondent. He was released last week. The Americans recently pulled their troops away from the Palestine but then replaced them after media companies protested.

In other attacks yesterday eight Iraqis were killed, including five members of the security forces.

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