U.S. assaults in Baghdad continue
Bush: Bremer to encourage greater Iraqi authority
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People inspect damage to a warehouse in Baghdad on Thursday, following an overnight raid by U.S. forces.
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CNN's Dana Bash on Paul Bremer's mission to jump-start progress toward Iraqi sovereignty.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre on stepped-up military strikes against insurgents in Iraq.
CNN's Alessio Vinci on Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi's vow that terrorist attacks won't deter his nation's efforts in Iraq.
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SPECIAL REPORT
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In the second day of ground and air assaults Thursday around Baghdad, U.S. troops destroyed a former Republican Guard building used by insurgents, the U.S. military said.
Meanwhile, Pentagon officials said that over the past several days troops seized 125 mortar rounds, 130 rocket-propelled grenades and 85 grenade launchers in two raids in the northern city of Mosul and four in the Sunni triangle.
The triangle is considered a Baathist stronghold that includes Baghdad and runs north along the Tigris River to Saddam Hussein's hometown, Tikrit, and west along the Euphrates River in the dangerous cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Khaldiyah.
Pentagon officials also said U.S. forces are holding as suspected enemy combatants about 20 people captured in raids around Mosul and Tal Afar over the past two days. Four are linked with the deaths of two U.S. soldiers who had been working with the mayor of Mosul.
In other action, troops apprehended five people suspected of a role in potential attacks against coalition forces, Pentagon officials said. Some 70 million dinars in cash -- about $28,000 -- also was found.
In Baghdad, the 1st Armored Division continued Operation Iron Hammer, an offensive targeting Saddam loyalists and other insurgents.
The former Republican Guard building in the western part of the capital near Baghdad International Airport was destroyed by an AC-130 Spectre gunship using 105 mm cannons and 40 mm guns, a division statements aid. The building had been used recently to conduct attacks on U.S. troops, it said.
U.S. forces also fired artillery rounds at two suspected mortar and rocket launch sites, one in western Baghdad and one in eastern Baghdad, the division said.
The operation began Wednesday, just hours after guerrillas attacked the Italian military police headquarters in Nasiriya, killing 18 Italians and at least eight Iraqis. (Full story)
Abizaid: Insurgents few but dangerous
Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the U.S. Central Command, described the opposition in Iraq as a small but well-organized network of cells numbering no more than 5,000 fighters.
Speaking to reporters via closed-circuit television from his headquarters in Tampa, Florida, Abizaid said it would be wrong to give Saddam credit for organizing the insurgency in advance of the U.S.-led invasion last spring, calling him "one of the most incompetent leaders" in world history.
He said he believes, however, that Saddam is still "alive and moving around Iraq."
"Now, people will say, 'Well, that's a very small number,' but when you understand that they're organized in cellular structure, that they have a brutal and determined cadre, that they know how to operate covertly, they have access to a lot of money and a lot of ammunition, you'll understand how dangerous they are," Abizaid said.
A Pentagon spokesman said that although the size of the weapons seizure was "about average," it was part of a heightened campaign to pre-empt attacks.
Abizaid suggested the supply of contraband munitions is drying up. He said "there's actually some indication, based on intelligence information that we have, that ammo is starting to be difficult for them to obtain in certain areas."
Guerrillas also kept up the pressure Thursday, attacking a U.S. vehicle in Fallujah with a bomb, causing three casualties, a witness told CNN.
The Army said a soldier died Wednesday from injuries sustained in a roadside bomb attack earlier in the day in Baghdad.
With the latest death, 401 U.S. troops have been killed in the Iraq war, 262 after President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.
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.
Bremer's message
President Bush said Thursday he sent civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer back to Iraq with proposals that would "encourage Iraqis to assume more responsibility" in running the nation. Bremer rushed from Baghdad to Washington earlier in the week for urgent talks. (Full story)
Several officials said Bremer also carried a stern message from Bush that it is time to, as one put it, "light a fire" under the Iraqi Governing Council, whose work, in the White House's view, has been stalled by personal, ethnic and religious rivalries.
Until Wednesday, the White House position was that the U.S.-led coalition would not yield control of Iraq until free elections were held under a new Iraqi constitution.
Other developments
• Japanese officials said Thursday they will not send troops to Iraq as planned. The decision was announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, who referred to Wednesday's bombing in Nasiriya, Iraq, in which 18 Italians were killed at the Italian police headquarters, as part of the reason for the indefinite postponement. (Full story)
• Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino Thursday said the same terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks were behind Wednesday's bombing of the Italian military police headquarters in Nasiriya that killed 18 Italians and eight Iraqis. In Rome, Italy's Cabinet reaffirmed Thursday that Italian troops will remain in Iraq. The Cabinet also plans to designate a day of mourning for the security forces. (Full story)
CNN's Matthew Chance, Paul Courson, John King, Kathleen Koch, Hada Messia, Mike Mount, Nic Robertson, Pelin Sidki, Alessio Vinci and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
