Word: hamra
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...shop on the roof. Nothing makes sense in Iraq right now. High-profile attacks are becoming more frequent, but U.S. officials say it is just proof that al-Qaeda is desperately lashing out and thus on its last legs. (See how Ben Lando survived the attack on Baghdad's Hamra Hotel in January...
...driver and I left a press conference at the Iraq Oil Ministry and headed back to the Hamra Hotel compound, where I live and work, we saw a dusty cloud rising to our right. "Perhaps a mortar into the Green Zone," he suggested. We had almost arrived when the second bomb exploded. The gunshots started soon after. My driver slammed the car into reverse and wove around cars, people and concrete barriers, right up to the hotel entrance. We ran inside, joining a handful of people sheltering from the gunfire. The last bomb brought down much of the ceiling...
...BlackBerry fly out of my hand as the blast brought down much of the hotel ceiling all around us. Outside, dust was clogging the air, rising from the homes outside the Hamra, private residences that had crumbled into rubble. As the dust swelled we shuffled into the basement. Gunshots continued. I shielded my eyes to see a little girl, maybe 5 years old, bloodied in the face and moaning, being carried down the stairwell to an employee exit from the hotel. It was then I saw my hand covered in blood from the tiniest of cuts from flying glass. Guilt...
Outside, halfway between the checkpoint and the hotel, a 6-ft. (1.8 m) deep crater smoldered. It could have been worse. According to one of the hotel's security officials, the driver of the suicide vehicle was shot before he could reach the front of the Hamra. The white minibus was apparently detonated remotely, an insurgent fail-safe that adds credence to the fears that the most recent of the coordinated car-bomb attackers are showing increasing sophistication. As the crowd of witnesses and Iraqi rescue workers grew, Iraqi police attempted to interdict the journalists. "Let them take pictures...
...home and office, near the site of the third and final blast on Monday, is now a refuge for the Hamra's foreign journalists from five continents. We are quickly assuring our families we are safe as we check in on our staff, call sources for more details, trying to meet deadlines. One colleague is doing his best to calm his driver whose brother is missing. Another is showing the shrapnel from what is likely a piece of the exploded minibus. It crashed through his window on the eighth floor of the Hamra Hotel. In my mind I walk back...