An explosion at a hotel Sunday in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit killed 15 Iraqis, police and hospital officials said. Dr. Hassan al-Juburi, director of the Tikrit Teaching Hospital, said the blast happened at 8 p.m. at the Sunubar Hotel, he said. Eight others were seriously wounded in the explosion, including two policemen. All the victims were Iraqi, he said. Al-Juburi said he did not know what had caused the blast. A police official confirmed the incident and said the explosion might have been caused by a projectile. He had no further details. Meanwhile, Gunmen assassinated the deputy governor of Baghdad and wounded four of his bodyguards on Monday, police said. They said the drive-by shooting that killed Hatem Karim occurred in the southern Dora district of the Iraqi capital.
