At least ten killed in car bombs at two Baghdad hotels

Car bombs at two hotels in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, have killed at least 10 people, with dozens more wounded. The explosions occurred just before midnight (21:00 GMT) and were heard across the city centre. The first explosion went off near the Babylon hotel, an upscale and recently refurbished hotel overlooking the Tigris river. The other shattered windows at the newly refurbished Cristal Grand Ishtar hotel (formerly the Sheraton Hotel) where rows of cars and SUVs were turned into piles of charred, twisted metal. Police have said security forces found a third car bomb in the Babylon’s car park and defused it. IS which is still battling government forces barely 30 kilometres west of the capital, has claimed many of the biggest attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country. The Babylon and Sheraton were hit in coordinated attacks in January 2010 killing 36 people. They were claimed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group that later became IS.

Middle East car bomb baghdad