Baghdad hotel bombings toll rises

BAGHDAD // At least 24 people were killed today and 42 wounded in a series of car bombs in downtown Baghdad, police said. The first explosion struck at about 3:40pm in the car park of the Sheraton Hotel, toppling high concrete blast walls protecting the site and damaging a number of buildings along the Abu Nawas esplanade, two Iraqi police officials said. Two other blasts followed minutes later, striking near the Babylon Hotel and Al Hamra Hotel, which is popular with Western journalists. The attacks ended a one and half month lull in co-ordinated assaults on the Iraqi capital as the war-scarred country heads into national elections in March. * Reuters and AP