Rockets Hit Journalists' Hotel in Baghdad

By: (AP) 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.

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.

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.

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.

The blaze was believed caused by several rockets that landed in the compound, which is surrounded by a concrete wall. A palm tree was set on fire and tracer bullets streaked across the nighttime sky.

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.

One barefoot man was carried over the broken glass by rescuers. Western foreign contractors, some appearing stunned, were escorted from the hotel by their armed security guards.

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.

Sheraton security guards said two rockets were fired from a pickup truck at the square, where Saddam Hussein's statue was pulled down last year in what became the defining image of his regime's collapse.

The pickup and another car were destroyed in the gun battle, the guards said. The truck contained more missiles, one security guard said.

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.