Blasts rock Baghdad near coalition headquarters
Iraqi politician killed in confrontation with U.S. soldiers
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A U.S. soldier secures the site of a blast Tuesday outside a Baghdad courthouse.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. military officials said at least two mortar shells or rockets hit Tuesday night within the Iraqi capital's "Green Zone," the center of most of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority's activities.
Lt. Col. George Krivo said there were two explosions in the vicinity of a parking lot near Saddam Hussein's former palace in Baghdad that now serves as the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
He said the origin of the explosions was not known.
"Crater analysis is going on at the moment. There are no reports of casualties. There are reports of damage to an unknown number of vehicles in the parking lot," Krivo said. "As far as I know, these are the only explosions that happened in the Green Zone tonight."
Shortly after the explosions, U.S.-led troops sealed off a school west of the Green Zone. Witnesses there told CNN the soldiers found rocket launchers at the school.
The coalition has yet to comment about the activities at the school, and soldiers there refused to discuss details of the operation.
A CNN security adviser at a hotel in Baghdad saw two strikes in the zone and smoke rising from the sites.
Earlier reports indicated three or four explosions.
Traffic appeared to be moving normally, and nearby bridges over the Tigris River are open.
The blasts were heard hours after the U.S. Army officer in charge of coalition ground forces in the country said the tempo of attacks on troops has risen.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters that the number of daily engagements between troops and guerrillas has doubled from the mid-teens to 30-35 within the past two months.
"What we're seeing is that unmistakably the number of engagements per day are increasing," Sanchez said.
Those opposed to the U.S. presence also are employing more remote tactics, using rockets and mortars to avoid direct combat with coalition troops, he said.
"When they do decide to engage, we're having good success in killing them," Sanchez said.
In addition, he said, a rocket-propelled grenade appeared to have hit a Black Hawk helicopter that went down Friday during "a vulnerable time" as it prepared to land. Six U.S. soldiers were killed.
Sanchez said U.S. troops also have increased the "pace and intensity" of their military campaign against guerrillas loyal to deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"We are taking the fight into the safe havens of the enemy in the heartland of the country, where we continue to face former regime loyalists, criminals and foreign terrorists," Sanchez said.
Thirty-eight U.S. troops have died this month, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 398. Since President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1, 259 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed.
There is no reliable source for Iraqi civilian or combatant casualty figures, either during the period of major combat or after May 1. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP said that the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals, and the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.
Sanchez said more than 5,000 suspected terrorists of various nationalities are in custody and are being interrogated.
At one time, 20 suspected al Qaeda members were being questioned. It never was established that they belonged to the terrorist group, Sanchez said.
Killing sparks U.S. protests
U.S. military officials said Tuesday that U.S. soldiers shot to death the chairman of Sadr City's governing council during a heated argument this week. Sadr City is a largely Shiite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital, formerly known as Saddam City.
Officials said the quarrel got under way Monday when the chairman, Mohannad Ghazi al Kaabi, tried to park his car near the District Advisory Council building in an area closed to traffic. When U.S. troops tried to stop him, military officials said, he became agitated, got out of his car and began arguing with a soldier guarding the offices.
Kaabi wrestled the soldier to the ground and grabbed his gun, according to the officials. Another soldier shot Kaabi in the upper thigh, they said.
A medic administered first aid to Kaabi and took him to a military hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The death is being investigated, military officials said.
About 200 to 300 demonstrators walked to the Sadr City Council afterward to protest the killing and began chanting anti-American slogans.
Carrying Shiite banners mourning the death, demonstrators called for a thorough investigation. They demanded that American troops leave Sadr City and give security duties to Iraqi police.
Bremer has White House meetings
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The casket of Roy Buckmaster, 47, an Air Force veteran from Oregon, is carried Monday in Portland. Buckmaster was killed in Iraq while helping destroy munitions.
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Iraq civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer made a hastily arranged trip to Washington on Tuesday and met with President Bush and senior national security officials to discuss setbacks in Iraq's political transition and continuing security problems, administration officials said.
Bremer attended an afternoon meeting of the so-called "Principals Committee" -- the senior members of the president's national security team. He also met with others at the White House, including the president, administration officials told CNN.
A senior Pentagon official said Bremer had been scheduled to brief officials by teleconference this week on his plans for "moving the Iraqi Governing Council forward," but decided to come in person instead.
In part he wanted "to spend more time with [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld," who is leaving tomorrow on a trip to Asia, the official said.
Bremer brought ideas for "putting some structure behind the government council to refine the way ahead" to help it make the looming December 15 deadline, the official said. By that date, the council is scheduled to set a timetable for writing a constitution and scheduling elections.
A senior administration official also told CNN the major agenda item was the December 15 deadline. A third official said the discussions also included "pressing security questions."
Other developments
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A British soldier guards the area in which a roadside bomb exploded Tuesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
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• With U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush marked Veterans Day by telling families of those killed overseas that their sacrifices came in a just cause. At a speech during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, Bush said Americans are "deeply aware" of the losses in Iraq and Afghanistan and that those service members died "in securing freedom in those countries." (Full story)
• A bomb exploded Tuesday in British-controlled Basra, killing two people and wounding two, a British military official said. The bomber was killed in the blast, the official said. No coalition soldiers were involved in the incident, and there was no further detail about the other casualties.
• More than 800 artifacts looted from Iraq's National Museum in the chaotic days after Saddam's fall were returned Tuesday, Iraqi Ministry of Culture officials said. (Full story)
CNN's Matthew Chance, Paul Courson, Mike Mount and Ismail al Sharif contributed to this report.
Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
