BAGHDAD, Iraq - More violence struck Iraq ahead of the anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein: a deadly car bomb exploded Thursday, three U.S. soldiers died in mortar attacks and five Iraqi journalists were shot to death.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, lowered the death toll in a suicide bombing at a Baghdad hotel on Wednesday to seven.

Officials had earlier said 27 people were killed in the Baghdad bombing. It then revised that downward to 17 dead without elaborating. Hours later, the military said that just seven had been killed.

There was no clear explanation for the change, but Iraq doesn't have a centralized system for handling such tragedies, and with the bodies of victims going to different morgues, government departments and other agencies often disagree over death tolls.

The suicide car bombing occurred near a hotel in Basra as a British military patrol passed by, killing two men and a boy in addition to the bomber. A man who got out of the car before the blast was stabbed to death by passers-by.

Three of the journalists were killed as they drove to work at a coalition-funded television station in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Nine other employees of Diyala TV were wounded in the attack on their minibus, said Sanaa al-Daghistani, the station's information director. Rebels often target Iraqis perceived as collaborators with the occupation.

Two more journalist died in separate violence when American soldiers shot and killed a cameraman from an Arab station and critically wounded a correspondent in Baghdad, the station said. The correspondent died of his wounds in a hospital early today, said Mohammed Ibrahim, the station's editing supervisor in Baghdad.

The all-news station Al-Arabiya, based in the United Arab Emirates, said cameraman Ali Abdel-Aziz and correspondent Ali al-Khatib were hit as they covered a nighttime rocket attack on Burj al-Hayat hotel in the capital.

Cpl. Craig Stowell, a U.S. military spokesman, said "one Iraqi was shot and killed when he tried to run a checkpoint near Burj al-Hayat hotel at 22:16." Stowell had no further details.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he is sending a U.N. team back to Iraq "as soon as possible" in response to an Iraqi request for help in organizing the political transition and elections.

Late Thursday, insurgents targeted the Ministry of Oil and the Bourj al-Hayat Hotel in Baghdad with several rockets and explosive devices. There were no injuries. One projectile punctured a hole in the second floor of the hotel, which sometimes houses Kurdish politicians.

Sirens also wailed briefly in the area housing the U.S.-led coalition headquarters. A U.S. military official said there had been an attack and it was under investigation. There were no casualties.

It was unclear whether insurgents were timing attacks to overshadow the anniversary of the March 20, 2003, start of the war that toppled Saddam, though assailants have often conducted attacks on holidays and other significant dates.