A big blast on Tuesday rocked the area around a hotel housing the U.N. headquarters in northeast Baghdad. The U.N. Special Representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was among at least 20 people who were killed.
A senior U.S. official confirmed that the U.N. Special Representative in Iraq, 55-year-old Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, had died after being trapped in the rubble of his office after the blast.
Earlier, it was reported that he was among many people badly wounded. "Sergio Vieira de Mello's office was destroyed and Sergio himself was hurt," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York. Additionally, a senior UNICEF official was seriously wounded in the blast, U.N. officials said.
Spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said that Benon Sevan, director of the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq, was also wounded while giving a press conference.
The U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone said the explosion destroyed a significant part of the building, Eckhard said. The U.N. Security Council called it a "terrorist attack."
The attack drew international condemnation, with U.S. President George W. Bush calling the attackers "enemies of the civilized world." (Albawaba.com)
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