Iraq: The Agony Goes On - UN Chief Among 20 Dead as Bombers Wreck Headquarters by Jamie Wilson and Julian Borger, Guardian / UK A huge truck bomb struck at the heart of the international humanitarian effort in Iraq yesterday, destroying part of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad and killing at least 20 people including the head of the UN mission. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special representative, a respected Brazilian diplomat and the embodiment of the international community's post-war role, survived for at least three hours trapped under the rubble, but died of his injuries before rescue workers could reach him.
Iraqis and international workers were among the dead and more than 100 wounded. Many of the casualties were rushed to a local civilian hospital, while some were taken by helicopter to US military hospitals. Last night the rescue work was still going on.
Blackhawk helicopters ferried the seriously injured away from the scene, though a field hospital was also set up close to the site.
US officials described the bombing as a suicide attack directly targeted on Mr de Mello, 55, who was in his office on the third floor when the truck exploded. One news agency reported that Mr de Mello was able to call for help on his mobile phone.
The bomb was hidden in a cement mixer lorry, but confusion surrounds whether it was allowed into the compound - where building work had been going on - or whether it was detonated while parked outside a new 12ft-high perimeter wall. The truck was thought to have contained 500lb of C4 military plastic explosive.
"All this happened right below the window of Sergio Vieira de Mello," a UN spokesman, Salim Lone, said. "I guess it was targeted for that. It was a pretty huge bomb. His office and those around it no longer exist, it's all rubble.
"I grieve most of all for the people of Iraq because he was really the man who could have helped bring about an end to the occupation. An end to the trauma the people of Iraq have suffered for so long."
Coming 11 days after a car-bomb at the Jordanian embassy, the attack confirmed a shift in tactics away from the American military to "soft" international targets in an apparent attempt to disrupt Iraq's reconstruction. It also left no doubt that the blue UN flag offers no protection.
It was the worst attack on a UN civilian mission in its 58-year history. But in a statement, the security council said it would not be deterred from continuing relief work. "Terrorist incidents cannot break the will of the international community to further intensify its efforts to help the people of Iraq," it said.
The Arab League condemned the bombing as a "dangerous terrorist crime", and urged "all national forces in Iraq to join forces and work to prevent these acts which do not serve the interests of the Iraqi people".
The UN will now be constrained by much more cautious security precautions for its 600 foreign and roughly 2,500 Iraqi employees in Iraq.
It had deliberately opted for minimal security, to avoid being associated with the occupation forces. But the strategy made the headquarters, formerly the Canal Hotel, vulnerable and it was unclear last night whether any review of conditions had been undertaken since the bombing of the Jordanian embassy.
The UN in Iraq was at threat level 4 - one below its highest, which if reached would have resulted in all its workers being withdrawn from the country. Yet security at the building was about as lax as it was possible to get in postwar Baghdad.
There were US soldiers at the gate, but unlike coalition buildings in the city, cars and other vehicles were allowed to pull up directly in front of the compound. Searches of vehicles were left to the Iraqi gate guards. There were no body or electronic searching, and there were no tanks or armoured vehicles at the gates.
"It is quite unspeakable to attack those who are unarmed," Mr Lone said. "We are unprotected. We're easy targets. We knew that from the very beginning, but every one of us came to help the Iraqi people who have suffered so long, and what a way to pay us back. I think their real target is the Iraqi people."
The bomb exploded at about 4.30pm just as UN spokesmen were holding a press conference. Japanese television coverage of the conference turned black momentarily and when the pictures resumed, they showed journalists and UN officials, some bleeding and all covered in dust, groping through the darkness in search of a way out.
The blast could be heard across the city, and a huge mushroom cloud of dust rose into the sky.
"It may have been a suicide bomber. There's evidence to suggest it," Bernard Kerik, a former New York city police commissioner who is training a new Iraqi police force, told reporters at the scene.
The bombing is a serious setback for the US-led occupation, and the coalition's struggle to prevent Iraq sinking into chaos. "By their tactics and their targets these murderers reveal themselves once more as enemies of the civilised world," a sombre President George Bush said at his Texas ranch.
The attack overshadowed a success for the US forces in Iraq, the capture of Saddam Hussein's vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was caught by local forces in Mosul and handed over to the Americans. He was number 20 on the most wanted list.
With the death of Mr de Mello, the UN has lost its most experienced troubleshooter. He was sent on many of the most sensitive and dangerous peace missions of recent years.
Mr Lone said: "He didn't want to come here because he was now high commissioner for human rights, and he said 'I don't want to give up my commitment to human rights in order to do this'. But everyone said to him we need you here, and indeed in Iraq it is a question of human rights. So he agreed, for four months only."
Brazil last night declared three days of national mourning in honour of the envoy.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
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