A suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a busy central Baghdad hotel, killing at least 12 people -- including Sunni and Shiite tribal sheikhs who were meeting as part of Iraq's reconciliation effort -- U.S. and Iraqi officials told CNN.An Iraqi journalist was also among those killed in the Mansour Hotel blast, which wounded 21 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.
The Mansour Hotel houses the Chinese embassy and several western organizations. (Watch as suicide bomber targets Baghdad hotel )
Video showed the inside of the lobby was completly gutted by the blast. Fragments of the ceiling dangled from threads amid exposed wires. Several dead bodies covered by blankets lay on the debris-strewn floor.
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