Three suicide bombers staged a co-ordinated attack on a Baghdad hotel complex used by foreign journalists today, killing at least 17 people, police said.
The bombings, at dusk in front of rolling television cameras and guaranteed global media coverage, broke a relative lull in insurgent violence over the past two weeks.
Video footage showed a bomber slam a car into heavy defences around the concrete towers of the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, blasting a path for another in a cement truck, who struck five minutes later. In between, a second explosion went off close by.
The cement truck, which appeared to be blocked from reaching the base of one of the hotels, exploded close to a US Bradley armoured vehicle on guard duty, sending flames and dust high in the air across the city centre.
There were no initial reports of US military casualties, a US military spokesman said. Recent media reports have focused attention on the fact that the US death toll in Iraq is just three short of the headline figure of 2,000.
A US military statement gave a different account, saying a combination of rockets and car bombs targeted the hotels.
The explosions, as Iraqis observing the holy month of Ramadan broke their fast, took place at a roundabout where a statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down, live on television, by Iraqis and US forces as troops seized the city in April 2003.
Iraq's National Security Adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said the bombings were designed to show that insurgents were still active after what he called a string of successes by Iraqi security forces during a constitutional referendum and last week's start of Saddam's trial for crimes against humanity.
"The plan was to try to penetrate the defences of the Palestine hotel by blowing up cars and firing rocket-propelled grenades and light arms to occupy the hotel and kidnap the journalists," he said.
There was no sign of guerrilla forces on the ground. US commanders have been warning in recent weeks of attacks in Baghdad designed to draw media attention to the insurgency. Among scenarios they have described include storming a guarded compound with bombs and gunmen to take hostages and kill them.
There was widespread superficial damage in the Palestine hotel - windows and doors were shattered as dust filled buildings nearby.
A 2kg (5lb) piece of blackened, jagged metal the size of a dinner plate landed, among many smaller pieces, outside the Reuters bureau 500 metres (yards) away.