BAGHDAD, Nov 21: Two fortified Baghdad hotels and the Iraqi oil ministry were targeted in rocket attacks on Friday, seriously injuring one person, as defiant US and British leaders vowed no retreat from Iraq and to defeat terrorism.

More attacks were prevented as two makeshift multiple rocket launchers were found near the Italian embassy, whose police were fatally attacked in southern Iraq earlier this month.

The Baghdad attacks were a new show of defiance following a major US onslaught in the capital, where occupation troops, their Iraqi allies, civilians and foreign targets have been attacked by the resistance fighters. Almost simultaneously, seven rockets launched from donkey carts hit the Palestine Hotel and two the adjacent Sheraton Hotel, both used by several media organizations, while others struck the oil ministry complex.

An American contractor with Kellogg Brown Root (KBR), a subsidiary of US giant Halliburton, was seriously injured at the Palestine Hotel.

Shattered glass and broken masonry peppered the two hotels after the attacks.

“We don’t feel secure here because the (oil) ministry is a target for the resistance. In truth, we fear both sides, the insurgents and the Americans. We never know from which direction the next blow will come,” said 32-year-old resident Rashid Sirhan.

Iraq police chief General Ahmed Ibrahim warned that the police would react with force to the attacks.

“You will see in the future a large operation by the police. We will mount a multiplied response, in the name of the Iraqi people,” he told a briefing outside the Palestine Hotel.

“The terrorists want to stop children going to school, civil servants and everyone else going to work. That cannot be tolerated,” he said.

“Iraqis are determined to stop anyone attacking their freedom.” Mr Ibrahim noted that it was the first serious attack on the Western media in the persistent guerilla warfare that has plagued Iraq in the seven months since the US-led invasion.

He said the assailants could be loyalists of Saddam Hussein’s government or religiously inspired militants. They were ready to use “any weapon that falls into their hand for terrorism”, he said.

The South Korean foreign ministry said 17 of its nationals, including a 10-member parliamentary mission, were staying at the Palestine Hotel but that none of them was injured.—AFP