A rocket-propelled grenade on Wednesday night narrowly missed Baghdad's Sheraton Ishtar Hotel, where many Westerners stay. Capt. Jason Beck of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said the military had also been firing on targets in the area of the hotel.
Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb went off north of Baghdad, killing three US troops, the U.S. military said. "Three Task Force Ironhorse soldiers were killed when the vehicle they were in was struck by an improvised explosive device," the military said in a statement, according to The AP. The attack occurred at about 9 a.m. as the soldiers traveled in a convoy near Samarra, a town north of Baghdad.
Also Wednesday, a bomb explosion in a Baghdad traffic tunnel killed two civilians and wounded two others, Iraqi police said. The bomb exploded in the Shurta (Police) tunnel around noon, when roads fill as residents go home for lunch.
Elsewhere, at least three people were killed and 50 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, Iraqi police sources reported.
The attack took place outside the Interior Ministry headquarters at 08:50 GMT, setting the building ablaze and killing two security guards and a passer-by. Ministry employees were among the wounded, AFP reported.
The force of the blast blew out windows in buildings surrounding the ministry's offices in this Kurdish town. (Albawaba.com)
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