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Rockets Hit Baghdad Hotel

Two rockets hit a downtown Baghdad hotel housing foreigners and journalists Thursday, and gunfire erupted in the neighborhood across the Tigris River from the U.S. Embassy compound.

Two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks, and the discovery of a bomb triggered a heightened alert in the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad — the area where the interim government and U.S. mission are headquartered.

Security guards at the Palestine hotel said two rockets fired from the back of a pickup struck the nearby Sheraton hotel, shattering windows and filling the main lobby of the hotel with smoke and debris.

Outside, bursts of automatic gunfire were heard in the street between the Sheraton and nearby Palestine hotel, which also is a base for foreigners. The gunfire lasted for about 10 minutes after the explosions.

A security guard speaking on condition of anonymity said private security guards deployed on the roofs in the compound fired at the pickup truck, destroying it.

In other developments:

  • Officials announced the graduation Thursday of 955 Iraqi police officers — but would not say where the two ceremonies took place. Iraq's beleaguered security forces are the target of regular bombings, mortar attacks and shooting sprees.
  • Contrary to the pre-war assertions of the Bush administration, Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programs had deteriorated into only hopes and dreams by the time of the U.S.-led invasion last year, the chief U.S. weapons hunter found.
  • The weapons hunter's report also says the Iraqi government manipulated the U.N. oil-for-food program from 1996 to 2003 in order to acquire billions of dollars in illicit gains and to import illegal goods, including parts for missile systems.
  • In Mosul, the U.S. military said American and Iraqi forces detained 20 people in operations in northern Iraq and foiled a roadside bombing Wednesday in the city of Tal Afar, scene of intense fighting last month between U.S. soldiers and insurgents.
  • Insurgent violence in Iraq has impeded the U.S. military's search for clues to the fate of missing Navy pilot Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, a Marine Corps general says. Speicher was shot down in the Gulf War but his remains were never found.
  • Unidentified gunmen shot and killed the chief engineer for a local U.S.-run television station in Mosul.
  • Violence in Iraq risks plunging the country into the chaos of a disintegrating "failed state" resembling terrorist havens like pre-Sept. 11 Afghanistan, Germany's intelligence chief said.
  • An aide to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr offered Thursday to hand over medium and heavy weapons and cooperate with Iraqi security forces in the capital if the government stops pursuing members of the Shiite militia and releases most of al-Sadr followers held in jail. U.S. warplanes struck the al Sadr stronghold of Baghdad's Sadr City — named for his father — overnight to neutralize roadside bombs.
  • About 240 detainees were released from U.S. and Iraqi custody Thursday, the U.S. military said. It was the fourth round of releases under a joint U.S.-Iraqi review process set up Aug. 21 following the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison. Those released included a prominent al Sadr supporter.

    Several shaken Westerners emerged from the hotel, some covering their mouths with cloths, as workers swept up shards from shattered plate-glass doors in the Sheraton lobby. A huge crack appeared in the lobby wall.

    A bride and groom rushed out of the smoke-filled Sheraton minutes after arriving for their wedding night.

    "I made a mistake by booking at the Sheraton. I knew something like this would happen. But I just did a foolish thing," said Hayder Abdul Zahra, holding his shivering bride in his arms.

    Iraqi police, National Guard and U.S. soldiers went to the lobby, and nearby Firdous Square was filled with police cars flashing red-and-blue lights.

    The U.S. Army rolled in reinforcements, including Bradley fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and Humvees, to take up positions inside the hotel compound.

    Shortly after the gunfire subsided, a new explosion was heard, but it sounded further away — likely across the Tigris River. Warning signs blared across the river from the area of the Green Zone.

    The hotels have been targeted by several previous rocket attacks, including one on Nov. 21, 2003, in which at least six rockets were fired from a donkey cart, injuring one person.

    The warning to Americans and Iraqi officials in the Green Zone followed the discovery Tuesday of an explosive device at the Green Zone Cafe, a popular hangout for Westerners living and working in the compound — which houses major U.S. and Iraqi government offices. A U.S. military ordnance detachment safely disarmed it, U.S. officials said.

    Americans living and working in the zone were warned to avoid non-essential movements, travel in groups and avoid specific areas.

    Although movements in and out of the Green Zone are restricted, about 10,000 Iraqis live inside the 4-square-mile district, located along the western side of the Tigris river.

    One U.S. soldier from the 13th Corps Support Command died when a bomb exploded near his convoy late Wednesday outside the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, the command said. Two other soldiers were wounded.

    A 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed and an Iraqi interpreter wounded when insurgents attacked a patrol with a roadside bomb near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the command said.

    Since the start of the war, at least 1,062 U.S. troops and three military contractors have died. More than 7,900 service members have been wounded.

    U.S. and Iraqi forces are trying to restore enough control so that national elections can be held in January. The election is considered a vital step toward building Iraqi democracy. President Bush and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi insist the balloting will take place throughout the country, despite warnings by some U.S. military officials that elections in some areas may not be possible.

    As part of the new security push, more than 3,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces are trying to clear an insurgent stronghold in a string of towns and villages just south of Baghdad, notorious for kidnappings and ambushes.

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