Blast outside luxury hotel in northern Iraq

Monday, 10 March, 2008 , 16:28

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, March 10, 2008 (AFP) — A powerful explosion rocked the normally peaceful city of Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq late Monday, an AFP journalist reported.

The explosion occurred in front of the Sulaimaniyah Palace, a luxury hotel, at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT), said the reporter, who was some 300 metres (yards) from the scene.

Nervous gun-toting Iraqi soldiers kept crowds away from the site.

Sulaimaniyah, one of the two largest cities in the normally peaceful autonomous Kurdish region of north Iraq, is located 330 kilometers (205 miles) from Baghdad.