BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Suicide bombers struck yesterday in Baghdad and eastern Iraq, killing at least 74 Shiite worshippers in two mosques near the Iranian border and eight Iraqis at a hotel in the capital used by foreign journalists and contractors.

The attack on the Hamra hotel was the second against a compound housing foreign journalists in the Iraqi capital in less than a month.

Suicide bombers wandered into the Sheik Murad mosque and the Grand Mosque in the border town of Khanaqin during Friday noon prayers and detonated explosives strapped to their bodies, police and survivors said.

It was the deadliest attack since Sept 29, when three suicide car bombers struck in the mostly Shiite town of Balad just north of Baghdad, killing at least 99 people.

In Khanaqin, the blast ripped down part of the roof of the Grand Mosque and heavily damaged the other place of worship. At sunset, dozens of people were still searching the rubble for missing family members and friends. Others collected shredded copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran.

One of the survivors, Omar Saleh, said he was on his knees bowing in prayer when the bomb exploded at the Grand Mosque.

“The roof fell on us and the place was filled with dead bodies,” Saleh, 73, said from his hospital bed.

Salem Ali Mohammed, 32, said he was in the mosque’s washroom when he heard a strong explosion. “I thought a rocket had hit the mosque,” he said. “I walked toward the prayer room and saw that the ceiling had collapsed and dead bodies were everywhere.”

American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division sent medical specialists and supplies to the town, located about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Iranian border.

In Baghdad, the attack on the Hamra hotel began about 8:12 am when a white van exploded along the concrete blast wall protecting the compound, blowing a hole in the barrier. Less than a minute later, a water tanker packed with explosives plowed through the breach in an apparent bid to reach the hotel buildings.

But the driver – apparently blocked by smoke and debris – detonated his vehicle just inside the barrier, destroying several nearby homes and blowing out windows in the hotel.

Eight Iraqis were killed and at least 43 people were injured, officials said.

“What we have here appears to be two suicide car bombs (that) attempted to breach the security wall in the vicinity of the hotel complex, and I think the target was the Hamra Hotel,” U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl Horst told reporters at the scene.

News organisations housed at the Hamra include NBC News and The Boston Globe.