BAGHDAD, Iraq – Three more bodies were pulled Thursday from the rubble of the U.N. headquarters in the Iraqi capital, a U.N. spokesman said. The discovery raised the death toll from the devastating truck bomb attack to 23.
Soldiers recovered three bodies from the U.N. offices in the Canal Hotel (search) on Thursday morning, the U.N. spokesman in Baghdad (search), Salim Lone, said.
The U.N. headquarters was attacked Tuesday by an unknown group using a massive truck bomb fashioned out of a crude combination of explosives from Saddam Hussein's old military arsenal, including a giant 500-pound bomb, FBI investigators said.
The U.N's official death toll now stands at 20, Lone said. However, the Associated Press had conducted independent checks at area hospitals which indicated that the death toll was now 23.
A key member of the U.S.-picked interim government had said on Wednesday that the death toll could go much higher. About 300 U.N. employees worked at the headquarters.
"There are many who are still trapped in there," said Ahmad Chalabi (search), a member of the Governing Council and leader of the Iraqi National Congress.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox