- BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) --
A bicycle bomb killed six people as they ended Friday prayers at a Shi'ite
mosque in central Iraq, in a reminder that few are safe from the swirling
conflicts still threatening much of the country.
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- Guerrillas earlier fired rockets into a Baghdad hotel
used by Westerners, and hundreds of U.S. troops raided houses in Saddam
Hussein's hometown overnight in the hope of capturing the organizers of
such attacks.
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- In Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, unknown attackers
strapped a gas cylinder packed with explosives to a bicycle and left it
outside a small Shi'ite mosque -- close to people praying on the pavement
because of lack of space inside.
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- "At the end of prayers, it exploded," Iraqi
police Sergeant Haki Ismail Mustafa told Reuters. Officials at a nearby
hospital said they knew of 39 people injured.
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- Baquba is in a largely Sunni Muslim area which is a hotbed
of resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. U.S. forces have mounted
major operations in and around the town to try to capture insurgents.
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- Shi'ites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million
people but were largely excluded from power under the rule of Saddam Hussein,
a Sunni. There has been tension between the two communities as they jockey
for power in the post-Saddam era.
-
- A car bomb attack after Friday prayers in the Shi'ite
holy city of Najaf in August killed more than 80 people, including one
of the most senior leaders of Shi'ism.
-
- The Najaf assailants have not been identified but there
have been whispers among Shi'ites that it was the work of Sunni radicals.
Later attacks on Sunni mosques were blamed on Shi'ite militants.
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- GUNFIRE EXCHANGED
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- No one was hurt in the rocket attack on the Burj al-Hayat
hotel in central Baghdad, used by Western businessmen and U.S. military
contractors.
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- Three rockets hit rooms around the fourth floor at dawn.
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- "Three men driving in a car hit the hotel with rockets,
smashing windows and the wall of the hotel," security guard Mishar
Muhammed Isma'il told Reuters Television.
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- Other guards said they exchanged fire with the men in
the car before it sped off.
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- In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, U.S. troops raided houses
in the hope of rounding up insurgents.
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- About 300 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division backed
by Bradley armored vehicles and military aircraft searched for suspects,
weapons and other incriminating material in some of the biggest raids conducted
by U.S. forces in recent weeks.
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- "It was a good night," Lt. Col. Steven Russell
told reporters after about 30 people were taken into custody. "Tikrit
will be a safer place tomorrow as a result."
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- U.S. officials said they were still investigating what
caused a helicopter to crash Thursday, killing all nine U.S. troops on
board, near the town of Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad and the scene
of incessant guerrilla attacks on coalition forces.
-
- A witness said the helicopter was in flames before it
went down and some reports said it could have been hit by a rocket.
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- The deaths take the number of U.S. soldiers killed in
either combat or accidents in Iraq since the invasion last March to almost
500.
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- A U.S. military transport plane carrying 63 passengers
and crew was hit by ground fire shortly after take-off from Baghdad Thursday
but managed to return and land safely.
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- The latest attacks follow a relative lull in violence.
On Thursday the U.S. military freed 60 Iraqis after announcing an amnesty
intended to ease resentment at the detention of thousands of guerrilla
suspects.
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- U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said those who did not
have "bloodstained hands" would be released. About 500 of some
9,500 suspects detained by U.S. forces since April are to be freed.
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