BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 26 — A senior American military officer was killed and more than a dozen other individuals were wounded early this morning when a barrage of air-to-ground missiles slammed into a hotel inside one of the most secure compounds in Baghdad, where most of the personnel who are part of the American-led occupation here live and eat. Balconies were blasted off of two rooms, and windows were blown out in the Rashid Hotel.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, the intellectual architect of the war against Iraq, who arrived here Friday for a quick look, had spent the night in the hotel, and was one floor above where one of the rockets hit, officials said. He was not injured.
Five other American soldiers were injured, as were seven American civilians working in various Iraqi ministries as part of the American-led effort to rebuild Iraq, officials said. Four non-American civilians were also injured.
The attack, which officials suggested had probably been carried out by men loyal to Saddam Hussein, had been carefully planned, perhaps over two months, and had involved some surveillance and rehearsal, American military officials said.
