Rocket attack on Baghdad hotel
Rockets slammed into a Baghdad hotel used by Western contractors today, shattering windows and blasting a swimming pool.
Several rockets struck the Bourj al-Hayat Hotel in the centre of the Iraqi capital, shattering windows and causing other minor damage but no casualties.
Three attackers drove up at 6am (3am irish time), blasted three rounds from shoulder-fired launchers and fled, said security chief Hamza Ali.
Two rockets hit the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel, where UN weapons inspectors stayed last year. A third exploded in the empty hotel pool.
The five-storey Bourj al-Hayat was also hit by rocket-propelled grenades on Christmas Day, when insurgents launched coordinated attacks against several hotels and embassies.
Later today, a home-made bomb exploded on a busy Baghdad street leading to a US military base, wounding two Iraqis.
Iraqi police said insurgents apparently were targeting a US military convoy that had just passed, and instead hit a minibus and passenger car, injuring the minibus driver and a child in the car.
Meanwhile American troops arrested 30 people including a dozen suspected of attacking US soldiers in Saddam Hussein’s home town.
The raids in Tikrit began hours after a Black Hawk medivac helicopter, clearly marked with a red cross, crashed after a witness said it was hit by a rocket.
All nine US soldiers on board were killed, the military said.
In Baghdad, a C-5 transport plane with 63 passengers and crew limped safely back to the airport after being struck by fire from insurgents.
In Tikrit, more than 300 soldiers raided 20 houses and three shops in one of the biggest US raids since major combat ended in May .
Thirty Iraqis were detained, including 12 of 18 people the soldiers were hunting. The remaining 18 men are believed to have information about wanted Iraqis, the military said.
Among the detained were one of two men suspected of detonating a roadside bomb that killed a US soldier in October.
Since April, insurgents in Tikrit have killed five American soldiers and wounded 52, making the city one of the toughest places for coalition forces to control following the collapse of Saddam’s three decade-long dictatorship.
Nearly 500 American soldiers have died in Iraq from hostile and non-hostile causes, according to the U.S. Central Command and the Department of Defence.
