The late news from Iraq is that six to eight rockets slammed into the Al-Rashid hotel in Baghdad in the early hours of Sunday morning. (Late word says they were mortar rounds, though the reports still seem sketchy.)
At the time, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was staying at the hotel, though he seems, thankfully, to have emerged uninjured.
The Al-Rashid also houses many CPA officials, so it’s an obvious target for terrorists or guerillas.
But this attack comes on the heels of the downing of a Black Hawk helicopter in Tikrit on Saturday afternoon, just hours after Wolfowitz himself left the city by another helicopter.
This is speculation. Perhaps these are coincidences. But it’s hard to avoid the thought that these were coordinated and targeted attacks, aimed at Wolfowitz.
In the eyes of the insurgents, the propaganda value of wounding or killing a senior administration official — especially such a fervent supporter of the war — would be inexpressibly high.
