Al-Rasheed Hotel

Royal Tulip Al Rasheed Hotel
Location in Baghdad
General information
Location	Baghdad, Iraq
Coordinates	33°18′58″N 44°23′21″E / 33.31611°N 44.38917°E / 33.31611; 44.38917
Management	Golden Tulip Hotels
Technical details
Floor count	18

Royal Tulip Al Rasheed Hotel (sometimes spelled Al-Rashid) (Arabic,فندق الرشيد) is an 18-story hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, often visited by journalists and media personnel due to its location within Baghdad's Green Zone. It is named after the eighth century Caliph Harun Al-Rashid. It has been a focal point in a number of conflicts in the region, most recently the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In 1982, in the midst of the Iran–Iraq War, in an attempt to show the world that Iraq was stable and safe, Saddam Hussein planned to host an international Non-Aligned Movement conference in the hotel. Iranian general and fighter pilot Abbas Doran led a large air attack on Baghdad to prove Hussein wrong and hit military targets all over the city. When his F-4 Phantom fighter plane was badly hit, rather than ejecting and being taken prisoner, he crashed his fighter jet into the building, badly damaging it. As a result, the conference was relocated to New Delhi rather than Baghdad, and Doran is revered today as a legendary pilot and martyr in Iran.

It gained worldwide fame during the 1991 Persian Gulf War when CNN conducted their newscasts from the hotel, propelling the network's senior war correspondent Peter Arnett to fame. Between the Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the building was the main housing facility for Western businessmen and diplomats, as well as foreign press.