Nick Wrack, a member of Respect’s National Council and occasional contributor of articles to this site, is in Baghdad at the moment. Below is his account of yesterday’s explosion at his hotel, one of a series in the city which killed around 100 people. It’s taken from Channel 4 News. Fortunately Nick was unhurt.
Barrister Nick Wrack was in Baghdad on behalf of Danny Fitzsimons, the British security worker arrested for the murder of two co-workers, when a blast ripped through his hotel.
I knew Iraq would be dangerous but I didn’t expect to be so close to a bomb blast.
This morning I was sitting with my colleague John Tipple in the lobby of the Al-Rasheed hotel inside the green zone in Baghdad.
We came out here on Sunday via Dubai, arriving at Baghdad airport on Monday morning, to represent Danny Fitzsimons, the British private security worker who has been arrested for the murder of two of his co-workers.
Our aim is to get Danny brought back to the UK. He could face the death penalty if convicted and we do not believe he will receive a fair trial in Iraq.
As we sat talking in the large East German-built hotel lobby the panels of the huge plate glass windows were blown out by a loud blast.
We both realised straight away that this was a bomb attack and dived under the table that separated us, as we had been told to do by the security personnel who have looked after us since our arrival.
As others dived for cover everything went quiet. But pretty quickly everyone was back on their feet, walking quickly out of the lobby or standing behind the thick hall pillars.
People seemed to take the blast in their stride. I suppose they’re used to these things although the hotel hasn’t been hit by a bomb since 2003 when the invasion took place.
There have been other incidents nearby. Last year, for example, a truck bomb went off in the street outside the hotel and several people were killed.
There were a lot of people at the hotel today and the blast might have had terrible consequences had the hit been more direct. Today, no one at the hotel was killed but two hotel workers who were in the nearby staff accommodation have been taken to hospital.
The blast was from the bomb targeted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, just 200 metres away from the hotel.
John and I went to get our cameras to take photographs. John’s room had been damaged by the blast. His windows had been blown open, although not shattered, and the impact had blown the wooden door frame off.
The surfaces were covered with dust from the damage. John was lucky not to have been inside at the time.
Outside we could see plumes of smoke from other bombs and lots of ambulances moving slowly in the streets below. Windows on all sides of the hotel have been put out by the blast.
The hotel was hosting a conference at the time of the bomb blast. Delegates were being hurried out of the hotel by armed escorts.
We spoke to two Italian soldiers from the Italian embassy who came up to collect their client. They said that things had been much quieter recently but this was a big attack.
Interestingly, the first uniformed presence we saw after the blast was a troop of USA army soldiers who came to check out the damage.
The bomb attacks have confirmed our belief that Iraq is far too unstable and dangerous, compounding the difficulties that Danny would experience if he were tried here. We are now even more determined to get Danny home.
Liam redux 
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