Bush back from Iraq; another attack on troops
U.S. soldier killed in Mosul mortar attack
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Iraqis display pictures of their relatives killed in recent suicide attacks as they demonstrate against the former Saddam Hussein regime Friday in downtown Baghdad.
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VIDEO
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CNN's Bill Hemmer talks with Governing Council chief Jalal Talabani.
CNN's Nic Robertson on the reactions of Iraqis to the Bush visit.
CNN's Bill Hemmer talks with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice about Bush's Thanksgiving trip.
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SPECIAL REPORT
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| PAST PRESIDENTIAL TRIPS TO WAR ZONES |
• 1952: Dwight David Eisenhower, then president-elect, visited Korea.
• 1966 and 1967: President Lyndon Johnson made two wartime trips to troops in Vietnam.
• 1969: President Richard Nixon visited troops in Vietnam.
• 1990: President George H.W. Bush visited U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia on Thanksgiving Day in the run-up to the Gulf War.
• 1999: President Bill Clinton addressed Kosovar refugees and NATO military personnel in Macedonia, two weeks after NATO airstrikes in Kosovo.
• 2003: President Bush pays a Thanksgiving Day visit to U.S. troops in Baghdad.
Source: The Associated Press
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- President Bush's surprise Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad didn't deter the fighting in Iraq, as guerrillas launched a mortar attack on Friday that killed a U.S. soldier and U.S. troops seized weapons and arrested anti-coalition suspects, including a cleric.
The soldier from the 101st Airborne Division was killed Friday in a mortar attack on the division's main compound in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, according to Sgt. Kelly Tyler of the 101st.
Tyler said one Iraqi worker suffered minor injuries in the attack.
Soldiers found the location where the four mortar rounds were launched and were searching for the attackers, Tyler said.
In the Ramadi area, soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division launched a raid in Haswah to capture Sheikh Taha Kitar, who is suspected of inciting anti-coalition activities among students near Haswah and Iskandariyah and financing insurgent cells. Three other people were captured during the operation.
U.S. Central Command also announced the death early Thursday of a soldier from the 82nd Airborne's Task Force All American -- operating west of Baghdad -- from a non-hostile gunshot wound.
Central Command said the soldier was in his barracks near Ramadi at the time of the incident, which is under investigation. An Army medic who heard the shot found the soldier without a pulse but was able to revive him.
The soldier died from the wounds, however, at a medical center.
The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in the war to 437 -- 299 hostile, 138 non-hostile. Since Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1st, 298 have died -- 185 from hostile fire.
No reliable estimate of Iraqi deaths over the course of the conflict is available. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP said the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals and that the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.
Iraqis meet to discuss transition plan
The head of the Iraqi Governing Council met Thursday with a top Shiite Muslim leader to discuss the cleric's disagreement with the latest plan to transfer sovereignty from the U.S.-led coalition to the Iraqis.
In an interview with CNN Friday, council leader Jalal Talabani said that both he and Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani support the latest plan to transfer sovereignty to the Iraqis even though Sistani has raised questions about it.
"His excellency is a man of democracy. He is insisting on democracy. And he repeated many times the need for democracy," Talabani said.
The transition plan -- announced earlier this month by the coalition-picked Governing Council -- calls for regional caucuses to pick a national assembly by the end of May.
The assembly is to choose a transitional government by the end of June. Sovereignty would be transferred from the coalition to Iraqis in July. The constitution would be written and democratic elections would be held by the end of 2005.
But Sistani is calling for a popular election rather than the caucuses to choose an assembly and wants Islam and Islamic identity to be woven into a new Iraq constitution.
Talabani said Sistani "proposed that the democracy must be respected" and that it is better for the people and not "some officials" to elect the assembly.
Sistani's stance is important since Shiites represent 60 percent of the country's population, and his objections could thwart efforts to gain widespread support for transitional plans.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told CNN Friday that coalition personnel are in discussions with Iraqi officials to prepare for the elections now scheduled, stressing that the government that is put in place by that vote is only a transitional group that will be replaced when a permanent constitution is written and national elections are held. (CNN Access: Condoleezza Rice)
"(It) is a good plan, but obviously in its implementation, there's going to be a lot of discussion," she said. "That's only natural in a democratic process."
Bush back from surprise Iraq visit
Rice said the officials planning Bush's surprise trip to Iraq "took a second look" after last week's rocket strike on a cargo plane taking off from Baghdad's airport, but the president and his staff decided the secret mission could go on.
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President Bush arrives early Friday in Waco, Texas, en route to his ranch in Crawford, after his trip to Iraq.
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"It was not the first time there had been concerns about planes coming in and out of Baghdad," she said about the DHL cargo plane that landed safely with one wing ablaze. "But the president decided we could do that ... as long as there wasn't advance notice that he was coming in."
Bush returned to Texas early Friday after making the unannounced visit to Baghdad to spend part of Thanksgiving Day with U.S. troops -- a trip that surprised not only the soldiers but also just about everyone else in the world.
His visit marked the first time a U.S. president had traveled to Iraq, and concern for Bush's safety kept the trip cloaked in secrecy. Even some members of the Secret Service were kept in the dark about it. (Timeline of Bush's trip)
Bush then went to a hangar where about 600 members of the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne Division had gathered.
The U.S. forces had been told that L. Paul Bremer, U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces, would be attending the dinner. Sanchez, the coalition commander, did not learn of the trip until 72 hours beforehand.
When Bush entered the hanger, the stunned and elated soldiers jumped to their feet, pumped their fists in the air, roared with delight and grabbed their cameras to snap photographs. (Full story)
"You are defending the American people from danger and we are grateful. You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq."
The insurgents in the country are "testing our will. They hope we will run," he said.
But, he said, "We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins." (Text of Bush's speech)
Other developments
• U.S. troops Friday shot and wounded a 7-year-old child who pointed a rifle at them, military officials said. Soldiers with the 1st Infantry Division, on patrol in Ramadi, saw two armed men running into a house and chased them, officials said. When they got to the house, a 7-year-old emerged with an AK-47 rifle pointed at the soldiers. The child was shot in the foot.
• Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York, and Jack Reed, Rhode Island, arrived in Baghdad Friday to visit U.S. troops and coalition officials, as well as with members of the Iraqi Governing Council. They spent Thanksgiving in Afghanistan. (Clinton praises Pakistan's fight against terrorism)
CNN's Jane Arraf, Walter Rodgers, Alphonso Van Marsh, Barbara Starr and Dana Bash 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.
