Blasts rock Baghdad as Christmas Day dawns
Three U.S. soldiers die in roadside bombing
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Military personnel near the Sheraton Ishtar Hotel Wednesday night in Baghdad
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SPECIAL REPORT
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least two explosions shook central Baghdad near coalition military headquarters about 6:23 a.m. Thursday local time (10:23 p.m. ET Wednesday), according to a U.S. soldier inside the compound.
Soldiers also told CNN they heard rockets flying over the area before the explosions.
At least one of the rockets hit the Sheraton Ishtar Hotel.
Video from the scene showed glass and debris in the lobby and some damage to the building's atrium. Hotel staff quickly worked to sweep up the mess.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Loud sirens blared after the explosions as the sun began to rise over the Iraqi capital on Christmas morning.
Hours earlier, a 60 mm direct-lay mortar was fired at the Sheraton but apparently missed its target, a U.S. military officer at the scene told CNN.
Jason Beck of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said the mortar struck a barrier.
As the people who fired it were fleeing, soldiers with the Facility Protection Service fired at them, he said.
One U.S. soldier was shot in the hand in the exchange of gunfire, a soldier on the scene told CNN.
"This underscores that the protective measures put in place worked to save lives and demonstrates the total disregard that the assailants had for innocent lives," Beck said.
Many Westerners stay at the hotel, including reporters and coalition contractors.
A CNN crew reported no signs of casualties or damage at the hotel. Witnesses said they saw smoke rising from behind the building and heard the sound of automatic gunfire.
In November, the hotel was hit by ricochet from a rocket attack launched from donkey-pulled carts. That attack targeted the Iraqi Oil Ministry and Palestine Hotel.
Earlier Wednesday, three bomb blasts struck coalition and Iraqi targets, killing three U.S. soldiers north of Baghdad, a bus driver in the capital and at least one civilian in the northern city of Erbil.
The soldiers were killed Wednesday morning when a roadside bomb struck their convoy on a highway near Samarra, north of Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said. The soldiers were members of Task Force Ironhorse.
A civilian bus exploded Wednesday in Baghdad after riding over a bomb, killing the driver and wounding two passengers, an Iraqi police official said. The blast occurred in a tunnel of a highway that leads to the city's western side.
In Erbil, a suicide bomber and civilian were killed Wednesday when the attacker blew up a car in front of a Kurdish government office, the U.S. military said.
"A suicide bomber drove a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device to the front of the Ministry of the Interior office in Erbil and was able to detonate the vehicle," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said at a news conference in Baghdad.
The number of injured from the blast was likely to be high because many students were in the area at the time of the morning bombing, Kimmitt said.
The violence comes as U.S. troops and Iraqi police brace for a rise in attacks by insurgents through the Western holiday season. U.S. troops throughout Iraq are celebrating the holidays but embarked on their customary raids and patrols.
Meanwhile, Central Command announced the recovery Wednesday of the body of a military policeman who died after jumping into the Tigris River two weeks ago to save another soldier.
The body of Spc. Todd Bates of the 135th Military Police Company was found Tuesday on the river's banks.
Central Command said Bates leaped from his patrol boat December 10 to save a soldier who had fallen overboard.
Military and Iraqi police, Air Force rescue crews and Navy divers conducted an extensive search for Bates.
Iron Grip takes aim
In the opening salvo of an anti-insurgent campaign dubbed Operation Iron Grip, attack helicopters, aircraft gunships and batteries of field guns pounded a southern district of Baghdad early Wednesday to smash Iraqi insurgent hideouts and to kill and capture suspected fighters.
Gunfire from the operation, which erupted around midnight, was some of the heaviest heard in the capital for several weeks.
"We have launched Operation Iron Grip," said Beck. "It will be focused on Baghdad and ongoing for the foreseeable future."
Pre-emptive strikes by 1st Armored Division units came amid military intelligence reports that Iraqi guerrillas may be planning a series of strikes on U.S. and other coalition forces over the holidays.
Beck said he was unable to reveal details of Wednesday's pre-dawn attacks for security reasons, adding it was too early for any assessments of damage or casualties.
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U.S. soldiers stand during a Christmas Mass at a Baghdad church Wednesday.
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Witnesses heard a U.S. AC-130 gunship firing its cannons, accompanied by the distinctive rattle of its rapid-fire Gatling guns. Apache attack helicopters also hit targets. The shooting was preceded by at least a dozen explosions of artillery.
The shooting appeared to be focused primarily on an area of small farms and date groves south of the Al-Doura district.
"It's very apparent to us that the enemy will probably use the holidays as a means to psychologically make its point," Beck said. "We know that, and we're prepared to meet that."
West of the central city of Ramadi, an informant led soldiers to a weapons cache containing 66 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, 69 rocket-propelled grenade fuses, more than 550 14.5 mm rounds and two boxes of propellant, the military said. Another cache was found east of Ramadi, it said.
CNN's Karl Penhaul and Satinder Bindra contributed to this report.
