U.S. occupation forces detained 12 suspected Iraqi resistance fighters in Tikrit in one of the biggest raids since the end of the American-led war.
Two blasts also shook central Baghdad shortly after dawn Friday, and security guards said several rockets struck a hotel used by Western contract workers, The AP reported. Windows were shattered and there was other minor damage but no casualties.
Two rockets hit the fourth and fifth floors of the Bourj al-Hayat. A third exploded in the empty hotel pool.
More than 300 soldiers swept through Tikrit just before midnight Thursday in a search for 18 men and teenagers suspected in anti-U.S. attacks.
In the four-hour raid, the occupation troops took 30 Iraqis into custody, among them 12 of the 18 "wanted" people. The other detainees were believed to have links to those suspected in the attacks, officials said.
Later Friday, a bomb planted on a western Baghdad road leading to a U.S. military base went off, injuring two Iraqi passers-by, said Lt. Col. Anthony Right, commander of the U.S. Army's 17th Engineering Battalion. (Albawaba.com)
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