Rockets hit Baghdad hotel housing foreigners; outside capital, two American soldiers killed by bombs

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Militants fired rockets at a hotel housing foreigners in the heart of Baghdad on Thursday night, causing minor damage, while U.S. officials said two American soldiers were killed by roadside bombs outside the capital and authorities arrested 20 Iraqis suspected of planting homemade explosives.

Two rockets hit the Sheraton hotel, shattering windows and filling the lobby with smoke and debris. Bursts of automatic gunfire erupted in the street between the Sheraton and the Palestine hotel, both bases for foreigners and journalists.

Security guards at the Palestine said two rockets fired from the back of a pickup truck hit the Sheraton, shattering windows, and a palm tree was set blaze as tracer bullets streaked across the darkened sky. Several shaken Westerners emerged from the hotel, some covering their mouths with cloths, as workers swept up broken glass. A huge crack appeared in the lobby wall.

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 U.S. Army rolled in reinforcements, including Bradley fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and Humvees, to take up positions at the hotels.

The hotels are across the Tigris River from the U.S. Embassy compound in the heavily guarded Green Zone, where U.S. authorities earlier raised a security alert after an improvised bomb was found in front of a restaurant there.

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.

A loud explosion shook the Green Zone on Thursday afternoon and smoke rose from inside the compound. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident. Insurgents regularly fire at the compound.

Americans living and working in the zone were told to travel in groups and avoid specific areas and nonessential travel.

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.