Let me second Jeff in Pusan’s breaking news report - seems like they were gunning for the Koreans during the rocket attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. Here’s what we’ve got so far - someone fired three RPG-7s into the Palestine Hotel, where 10 members of South Korea’s parliamentary fact-finding commission, two Korean guides, and five Korean embassy staff were residing. This Yonhap News report claims that the missiles were aimed at the 12th floor (Yonhap got that from a MoD source, but don’t ask me how he reached that conclusion - the missiles apparently hit the 16th and 15th floors according to this YTN report) of the 17 floor structure - the 12th floor being used by the Koreans, leading people to believe that they were the intended target of the attack. According to one source at the Ministry of Defense, there are fears that the attack was in reprisal for the government’s acceptance of American requests for additional manpower in Iraq. None of the Koreans were killed in the blast, which injured two people.
Assuming the Koreans were the intended target (which, as far as I am concerned, is far from clear at this stage), I shudder to think how this incident will effect the debate going on in Korea concerning its planned dispatch of troops to Iraq.
UPDATE: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is saying that the Koreans were NOT the intended target of the attack on the Palestine Hotel.
(Hat tip for that update goes to Jeff in Pusan)
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More proof that the world revolves around Korea!