“Visiting US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has escaped unhurt after a rocket attack on his hotel in Baghdad.

Up to eight rockets were fired at the Hotel al-Rashid, one of the most heavily guarded sites in the Iraqi capital.

A US colonel working for the Coalition Provisional Authority was killed and 15 other people, including 11 Americans and one Briton, were wounded.

But US officials say they believe that Mr Wolfowitz was not a target of the attack, which they suspect was in preparation for ‘a couple of months’.” —BBC

Billmon neatly juxtaposes the US response — abandoning its occupation headquarters and one of the architects for the invasion scurrying for safety with his tail between his legs — with recent dysadministration rhetoric about “taking the fight to the enemy”.

Related: Black Hawk Down: US helicopter brought down by ground fire near Tikrit; resistance grows more determined and sophisticated. —Washington Post