2 Pinoys among 24 killed in Iraq blast

Two Filipinos were among the 24 people killed in Tuesday night’s bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq.

Over 100 people were also wounded in the deadliest attack in Iraq since US forces ousted President Saddam Hussein’s regime on April 9. The overall toll surpassed that of the Aug. 7 bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad that killed 14 people and wounded 50.

The names of seven victims were released by the UN yesterday. They came from Brazil, the Philippines, the United States, Egypt, Britain and Canada.

The UN special representative to Baghdad, Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, was killed in the attack.

Also killed in the attack were Filipinos Ranillo Buenaventura of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Marilyn Manuel, a member of De Mello’s staff.

American Richard Hooper of the UN Department of Political Affairs, Egyptian Jean Salim Kanaan of De Mello’s staff, and Canadian Chris Klein-Beekman of the UN Children’s Fund program were also killed.

A massive truck bomb devastated the UN headquarters in Baghdad Tuesday and sparked outrage around the world and overshadowed the US coalition’s arrest of former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam’s hawkish right-hand man.

The blast hit below De Mello’s office on the second floor of the Canal Hotel and left the 55-year old diplomat with his legs trapped beneath an iron bar. When rescuers finally freed him, De Mello’s body was cold, blood having poured out of his legs, a witness said on condition of anonymity.

According to witnesses, De Mello’s last words were: "Water, water."

Late Tuesday, US soldiers and UN workers were still digging through the rubble in an effort to find survivors.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, which a UN employee said was caused by a truck bomb. "I saw a yellow cement truck crash into the wall of the Canal Hotel and explode," Favez Sarhan said.

Suicide Bombing

The target and nature of the attack bore the marks of international Islamic militant groups like al-Qaeda, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik said, as he toured the wreckage of the hotel that housed the UN mission. Kerik is in Baghdad to rebuild the Iraqi police force.

At the scene, Kerik said "we believe it is probably a suicide bombing."

"We found human remains" in the remnants of the truck, he said, adding the attackers used "an enormous amount of explosives."

President Arroyo condemned the attack, even as she affirmed a previous Philippine decision to deploy peacekeepers in Iraq.

"The Philippines joins the international community in condemning (the bombing) in the strongest terms and in calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice," the President said in an official statement.

"The assault on the UN office is an act against international solidarity for peace, democracy and freedom," she said.

Pinoy Peacekeepers Going As Planned

The bombing in Baghdad, the President said, has only spurred the Philippine government to maintain its earlier decision. "Our commitment is reinforced by the dispatch tonight of a Philippine peacekeeping mission to Iraq, which will help hold the line of peace and order and engage in humanitarian endeavors."

"We are not intimidated in the least in fighting side by side with the global coalition against terrorism to stop these criminal and inhuman acts," Mrs. Arroyo added.

"This commitment," she said, "will stand firm in the face of the fresh wave of terrorist attacks and (we) will not relent until (we see) the total defeat of terrorists everywhere."

In the meantime, Mrs. Arroyo expressed optimism that the US-led global coalition against terrorism will continue to aid the Iraqi people in restoring democracy after the ouster of Saddam.

"It is sad that the restoration of freedom to the Iraqi people continues to be hobbled by uncertainty in the face of these attacks," the President said.

She also reassured the Filipino people that law enforcement authorities are doing their best to safeguard the Philippines’ internal security using "target-hardening" measures to thwart attacks by local and foreign terrorist organizations.

World leaders were quick to condemn the bombing. At the UN headquarters in New York, the flags of all 191 member nations were removed from their poles, leaving only the official UN flag flying at half-mast.

The UN Security Council called the blast a "terrorist criminal attack" and said it would not break the will of the international community to help the people of Iraq.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called De Mello’s death was a "bitter blow" to the world body, which lost one of its most effective troubleshooters, a man hailed by Annan as "an outstanding servant of humanity."

De Mello was a UN veteran who served for over 30 years as a troubleshooter in the world’s most dangerous hotspots, including Kosovo, Cyprus and East Timor, where he helped end bloodshed and rebuild in the aftermath of war.

"Wherever there was suffering, he was there," said De Mello’s spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone. "He was a wonderful guy. He was the UN, in a way."

Pope John Paul II sent his condolences to the UN and relatives of the victims of the bombing and called for those engaged in violence to "abandon the ways of hatred."

In a letter to Annan sent by the Vatican secretary of state, the Pope offered prayers for the victims and asked for God to "comfort those who mourn at this time of tragic loss."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said De Mello was a "victim of terrorist madness" and sent his condolences to De Mello’s kin.

"The civilized world will not be intimidated and these killers will not determine the future of Iraq," US President George W. Bush said.

The Arab television station Al-Jazeera reported that the Iraqi Islamic National Resistance Movement released a written statement condemning the attack and saying no Iraqis would have attacked the UN.

Al-Jazeera earlier aired a videotaped statement, purportedly from the same group, that contained threats against US forces in Iraq. Such statements have become common, but it is difficult to determine whether those behind the statements are responsible for the attacks against US forces.

Earlier this month, the targets and scale of the attacks in Iraq broadened from US forces to civilian targets, after the Jordanian embassy bombing.

Since then, saboteurs have successfully struck key water and oil installations, setting back US efforts to put Iraq on a course for prosperity and democracy, even as more soldiers of the US-lead coalition are killed almost daily in the attacks.

US administrator for Iraq L. Paul Bremer said he considered Ansar al-Islam, described as a Taliban-style group that has been operating in northern Iraq before the war, as a possible suspect in the embassy bombing.

Bremer believes that Ansar al-Islam, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, is regrouping in the Baghdad area after its northern Iraq bases were destroyed by US forces during the war. — AFP, Marichu Villanueva