Rocket kills 15, as Japan stands firm

A ROCKET slammed into a hotel in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit yesterday, killing 15 people and injuring eight, US and Iraqi officials said.

The blast at the Sunubar Hotel sent frightened guests of the three-storey hotel running into the street, some barefooted, others with bloodstains on their clothes.

Dr Hassan al-Juburi, director of the Tikrit Teaching Hospital, said that the eight injured people included two policemen and all the blast victims were Iraqis.