Bombing Reporters, an Insider's View

From Christopher Allbritton's Back to Iraq:

Three car bombs in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - There are reports of a mortar attack and two large car bombs at the Sheraton Hotel, home of Fox News and, next door in the Palestine, the Associated Press. There has been a third car bomb attack on the al-Sadeer Hotel up the road from me.

[UPDATE 10/24/05 6:03:43 PM: Now it appears it's three car bombs at the Palestine/Sheraton compound instead of mortar... No attack on al-Sadeer as near as I can tell. CNN's footage is chilling; two smaller explosions in front of AP cameras on the Palestine Hotel, and then a third huge explosion. As you watch, you can see a tanker truck cement mixer enter the compound before exploding in a massive cloud of fire, dust and smoke.

This means they knew where the cameras are. They know how to get into the compound. And there's a good chance the first two explosions were designed to get journalists' attention, draw them to the windows and then explode the third one.

[No good word on casulaties yet. Nothing reliable.]

Things are confusing right now and we're unsure what has happened, but that's the latest. The blasts rattled my windows and I'm three or so kilometers away.

Note: emphasis mine.