Killed Briton named

A British man was among 17 people who died when a 1,000lb car bomb blasted a hotel in central Baghdad, the Foreign Office confirmed today.

Another Briton, also staying at the Mount Lebanon Hotel, was among 45 people injured in the terror attack which left a crater 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep in the road nearby.

Moments after the explosion three American soldiers died when mortars hit a US logistics base north of Baghdad.

And today gunmen killed three Iraqi journalists who worked for a Coalition-funded TV station north-east of the capital.

Within hours another bomb exploded killing up to five people outside a hotel in Basra used by the British military for news briefings. The attack on the Mirbad Hotel left four men and a boy dead, police said.

The dead Briton was named as Scott Mounce, 30, originally from Hull. The injured man is Giles Ash, 31, a married man working for the same Italian company as Mr Mounce. Mr Ash's injuries are said to be serious but not lifethreatening.

Women and children were among those who died in the Baghdad hotel blast yesterday which set fire to the second and third floors. Local people tried to rescue those trapped on upper storeys but were beaten back by the heat.

"I heard the explosion and ran down the street right away, but I could not get through the flames," said Ahmed Jassim, 23. "I saw many dead; there were people burning on the road, screaming."

Lebanese businessman Jihad Abi Musleh was watching TV in a second-floor room in the hotel when the bomb exploded.

"The whole street was on fire. The walls of the hotel were demolished," he said.

Many more people were feared to have been trapped in other buildings damaged by the explosion. Rescuers dug at the rubble into the early hours but officials today said there were no more survivors. Across the street, the one-storey house of a family of seven was virtually destroyed. "I was sleeping and then I heard a huge explosion, I ran out and I was hit against the wall," said Jihad Abu Muslah, speaking from his hospital bed with bandages over his face.

Walid Mohammed Abdel-Maguid, 16, who lives near the hotel, said: "It was a huge boom followed by complete darkness and then the red glow of a fire."

The Mount Lebanon hotel is known to be used by foreigners including Arab businessmen.

US officials in Baghdad said the attack bore all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda-related group.

Colonel Ralph Baker said it was directed at civilians, adding: "There were no coalition forces in the area. It looks like the bomb was plastic explosives and artillery shells mixed with explosives to create more injuries.

"It fits the profile of the terrorist organisations."

A spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council blamed al Qaeda.

"It is aimed at terrorising the civilians, destabilising the country and hampering the democratic march," said Hamid al-Kafaai.