Suspected al-Qaida bomb levels Baghdad hotel

UPI ^ | 3-17-04 | Mitchell Prothero

[Coop]

This thing looks more like a mistake than an intentional bombing. Stupid target, waste of a suicide bomber, it just doesn't make sense.

Soft target, they can't get near the high-value ones, and it's the one-year anniversary celebration. Plus they're just coming off the signing of the Iraqi Constitution. The evil cowards had to make a deadly statement.

[Coop]

Problem is, our best asset for capturing Zarqawi (and Ibrahim al-Douri), is the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which is currently assigned to Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden, Zawahiri and Omar.

That's a bit too general of a statement, IMHO. There are plenty of well-trained resources still in country and hunting down Zarqawi and al-Douri.

[Boot Hill]

"That's a bit too general of a statement..."

Fair observation.

--Boot Hill

[swarthyguy]

I tending to think maybe this was a premature explosion.

The Palestine Hotel makes far more sense as a target filled with high value Westerners and media types.

And, something that was pretty much ignored in the US press, was the jihadi attack on the media centre in Srinagar Kashmir. It burnt to the ground, the attack almost killing Euro and Indian media staff.

Just a thought.