Thunder from both sides hits Iraq

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
The Washington Post;

	KARIM KADIM / AP An Iraqi girl makes her way through a hole made by a rocket in a building close to the German Embassy in Baghdad yesterday.
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Just before dawn, guerrillas fired rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at several targets in the capital, including two large hotels housing foreigners, two banks, several embassies, the headquarters zone of the American occupation authority and a U.S. Army base. The attacks caused no deaths and only two injuries but sent a shiver of unease through this city of 5 million people.

In the evening, the U.S. military responded by firing artillery rounds to the south of Baghdad, sending shock waves reverberating through the city. At least one AC-130 Spectre gunship, which has cannons capable of firing 3,000 rounds per minute, joined in the attack.

Although military officials did not comment on the strikes, the Army has conducted similar operations in recent days aimed at sites where insurgents have fired mortars at U.S. forces. Those missions have largely been shows of force that have not killed attackers but were designed to deter future strikes on American troops.

Shortly after the artillery strikes began, insurgents fired at least three rockets or mortars into a swath of central Baghdad that houses the headquarters of the occupation authority. Air-raid sirens sounded in the area, known as the Green Zone, but it was not immediately known whether the explosive projectiles struck anything.

Guerrillas also fired mortars at a U.S. military base in Baqouba, a city about 30 miles northeast of the capital. The attack wounded eight soldiers, two of them seriously, a military official said.

Yesterday's guerrilla barrage in Baghdad was the most extensive since the Dec. 13 capture of former President Saddam Hussein. U.S. officials had warned of large-scale attacks in Iraq around Christmas.

Although American forces had increased security in the capital after threats were made, the strikes demonstrated that small groups of insurgents can still mount hit-and-run attacks across the city. While their explosive projectiles mostly failed to pierce the thick concrete walls and other fortifications erected around U.S. bases, embassies and other high-value targets, the assaults nonetheless reminded residents that insurgents are continuing their campaign of violence despite the capture of Saddam.

Among the targets attacked yesterday morning was the 19-story Ishtar Sheraton hotel, which was hit by a mortar on Christmas Eve. A rocket-propelled grenade crashed through the hotel's atrium, sending debris and glass crashing into the lobby. Another grenade, apparently intended for the Sheraton, crashed through a bedroom wall in an apartment building across the street, wounding a woman and her 20-year-old daughter.

A U.S. military spokesman said the morning attacks included three or four in the Green Zone.

Rockets and grenades also hit the Iranian and Turkish embassies but did not pierce their walls. Another explosive projectile hit an office building behind the German Embassy, destroying an empty second-floor office. A mortar shell struck a police station in southern Baghdad but caused no injuries, the military said.

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