Yesterday's bombings, the widest in scale in the Iraqi capital since the December 13 capture of Saddam Hussein, followed warnings of a wave of spectacular attacks during the holiday season.

The US military said an American soldier had been killed by a roadside bomb in the capital on Wednesday, raising the death toll to four in attacks that day.

Two hotels used by Westerners and an apartment block were struck, as well as the area where the headquarters of the US-led administration is situated.

Guerrillas fired rockets that hit the outside wall of the Iranian embassy, the Turkish embassy and a residential building next to the German embassy.

The rockets blew a hole in the front wall of the Turkish mission and shattered windows but caused little damage in the other blasts, witnesses said.

A rocket missed the Interior Ministry and landed in a nearby street, witnesses said.

Only one woman was wounded in the attacks that took place around sunrise.

The slain American soldier brought to 206 the number of US military deaths from hostile fire since Washington announced the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1.

Washington blames attacks on Saddam supporters and foreign Islamic militants. Officials had warned insurgents would launch fierce attacks during the Christmas holiday season.

The bombings added to the gloom surrounding Christmas celebrations. Baghdad churches did not hold the traditional midnight mass for lack of security, clerics said.

Hundreds from the Christian minority attended masses in the morning, alarmed by the violence gripping their city.

The lift area between the eighth and ninth floors of the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel was struck. Debris and shattered glass littered the hotel's lobby.

A manager at the hotel said there were no casualties.

The hotel, where US contractors and Western journalists stay, was hit in another attack late on Wednesday, but once again there were no casualties.

"This is a regular day for us," said US First Lieutenant Kurt Muniz, as he led several soldiers on a foot patrol in the area.

He said the attackers left behind leaflets urging staff at the Ishtar Sheraton to stop working at the hotel and demanding US forces leave Iraq.

Another rocket hit the Bourj al-Hayat Hotel, also used by Americans. The hotel was used by U.N. weapons inspectors before the war. No one was hurt.

At the apartment block, Samar Zeid, 20, said: "We were sleeping when we heard a large explosion. My mother was taken to hospital." The attack damaged his parents' bedroom.

A neighbour said he saw a car speeding away from a nearby street immediately after the attack.

A US military spokesman said three or four rockets struck in the vicinity of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority complex in the centre of Baghdad on the western bank of the river Tigris.

Warning sirens sounded several times at the complex, which was once one of Saddam's palaces. The all-clear was sounded some two hours after the attacks.

Three US soldiers died in a bomb blast north of Baghdad on Wednesday and a suicide car bomber killed himself and four other people in northern Iraq.

US aircraft and artillery pounded suspected guerrilla hideouts in southern Baghdad for a second night.

Blasts and heavy machinegun fire echoed across the city as the US military's Operation Iron Grip went on into early Thursday to flush out suspected guerrillas.

US soldiers have arrested hundreds of suspected guerrillas and their backers in raids across the Sunni Muslim heartland west and north of Baghdad since Saddam was captured on December 13 in his home town of Tikrit.

The Sunni minority dominated Iraq under Saddam's rule. He repressed the majority Shia Muslims during his three decades in power.