UN’s top Iraq envoy condemns deadly Baghdad hotel bombing

The top United Nations envoy to Iraq today condemned a suicide attack which killed a number of officials gathered at a central Baghdad hotel for a meeting seeking to chart a path to reconciliation in the strife-torn country.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Iraq Ashraf Qazi called the attack at Al Mansour Melia Hotel “a deplorable crime” aimed at sabotaging efforts to resolve differences and promote the peace so urgently needed by Iraq’s citizens.

Mr. Qazi called on the Iraqi authorities to pursue and bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack, which killed and injured dozens of Iraqi civilians, including former Anbar Governor Fasaal El Gawud, Iraqi Parliament member Al-Sheikh Hussein Al-Sha’alan and Iraqi poet Rahim Al Maliki.

The hotel bombing is the latest attack in a wave of violence that the Special Representative has warned threatens to push the country further into a sectarian war.