BAGHDAD (AFP) – At least 17 people were killed yesterday when triple car bomb blasts slammed heavily-protected hotels used by foreigners in the centre of the Iraqi capital.

The attack at sundown came amid mounting tension over the delayed outcome to Iraq’s constitutional vote.

The blasts rocked Firdus Square, where the statue of ousted president Saddam Hussein was pulled down when US troops marched into Iraq in April 2003, and shook the Palestine, Sheraton and Sadir hotels.

A shock wave that followed the flashes was felt across central Baghdad and a white mushroom cloud then slowly billowed up from the buildings, followed by two more, the third a thick column mixed with grey and black.

A senior security source said 17 people were killed and nine wounded. “The victims are either security guards, hotel employees or passers-by,” the source said, without saying if any foreigners were among them.

The US military reported no coalition casualties.

Video images showed a cement truck breaching the security perimeter for the Palestine and Sheraton hotels just as an explosion occurred on the opposite side of the square.

The truck came to a halt and a massive blast followed.

“If the cement truck driven by a suicide bomber had not been stopped in time by the guards who opened fire, it would have totally devastated the Sheraton,” another security source said.

According to a US military account of the attack: “The first car bomb caused a breach in an outer barrier wall of the Palestine and Sheraton hotels.

“About five minutes later a second car bomb approached the square and tried to manoeuver through the breach but was engaged (fired upon) by civilian security forces and detonated” near a mosque.

“Thirty seconds later, a Task Force Baghdad soldier engaged a cement truck that was moving through the breached wall. The truck exploded near a coalition vehicle causing moderate damage,” it said.

Targeting two hotels where security contractors and many of the world’s media have their base, the blasts appeared aimed at grabbing global attention.

The Palestine Hotel – where two journalists were killed by US tank fire a day before Saddam was ousted in April 2003 -suffered major damage, and windows in buildings 250 metres (yards) away were blown out.

Customers rushed out of restaurants, the crowded Karadah market nearby emptied, and fear was visible in most people’s faces, an AFP correspondent close the scene said.

The blasts underscored growing tension over the outcome of Iraq’s draft constitution, which hinge on the still undeclared results of a single Sunni-dominated province after a second region rejected it.

Electoral officials announced in Baghdad that volatile Al-Anbar province voted down the constitution in the October 15 referendum with 96.95 per cent against, joining Salaheddin which rejected the results by 81.5 per cent.