Baghdad's deputy governor assassinated

Unidentified gunmen killed yesterday the deputy governor of Baghdad Hatem Karim and injured four of his personal guards in an attack at his procession in al-Doura area to the south of the capital.

Some 15 Iraqis were killed and other 8 injured strongly by a shelling which fell on a hotel in Tikrit to the north of Baghdad. Two shelling fell downtown. One was in the three- storey al-Sanouber hotel in the downtown of Tikrit yesterday evening. Medical sources said that among the 8 injured are two policemen.

American military sources expected that the second shelling had targeted one American position without causing casualties in their lines. In another development, the body of one British soldier which found killed in a military base in al-Basra city to the south of Iraq.