Weapons handover begins in Sadr City
Suicide car bombing kills U.S. soldier
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 Rumsfeld visits troops in Iraq.
 Insurgents attack a Baghdad hotel where many Westerners stay.
 Samarra recovers from operation against insurgents.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqis aligned with the Medhi Army began trickling into Iraqi police stations in Sadr City Monday morning, exchanging their weapons for coupons they can later use to get cash from the Iraqi government.
Rebels are expected to surrender thousands of medium and heavy weapons at various centers under the control of police, the National Guard and City Council officials during a five-day amnesty, officials in Iraq's interim government said.
Observers say the surrendering of rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars and machine guns is a sign an agreement between radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government is being implemented as announced.
Iraqi Police Col. Fawzi Mahmoud said the weapons began arriving at 8 a.m. Monday at the al-Habibia police station on the outskirts of Sadr City.
"Until now, we have received a good number of weapons and Mehdi militia is still coming to this center to turn over its weapons," Col. Mahmoud said.
"The city is very quiet and the people have been very cooperative with the Iraqi police," he said.
When a weapon is turned in, the donor gets a receipt from police which can later be exchanged for cash from the Iraqi government.
Three police stations in Sadr City were ready to receive the weapons, another police official said.
The weapons surrender is intended to allow Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. forces, to take control of the area where attacks on U.S. and Iraqi soldiers have been going on for weeks.
The sprawling slum is home to 2 million people, nearly 10 percent of Iraq's population.
In return for the weapons handover, the interim government said, there will be amnesty arrangements for people who "have not been involved in criminality." Also, al-Sadr himself and his allies would be permitted to get involved in the country's nascent political culture.
Iraq's interim government and al-Sadr followers announced the deal Saturday.
Interim national security adviser Kasim Dawood called the plan a "breakthrough" deal and a "big achievement" toward consolidating national unity in Iraq.
Iraqi companies will be allowed to resume normal operations within Sadr City, but foreign companies will not be allowed in at this time, Sheikh Ali Smeisem said.
Lethal blasts
Two suicide car bombs exploded in separate sections of Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing seven people, including a U.S. soldier, officials said.
Earlier, Iraqi police reported 17 deaths, but officials offered no explanation for the change.
The attacks occurred as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to the region.
The first car bomb apparently exploded prematurely, killing its six victims before reaching its intended target -- an Iraqi police academy.
That explosion, at 7 a.m. (12 a.m. ET), happened at a busy intersection near the Iraqi Oil Ministry and 200 yards from the police academy, police said.
A second suicide car bomb exploded at 7:15 a.m. as a U.S. military convoy passed, near an empty supermarket in a southern section of Baghdad. A U.S. soldier later died of wounds from that attack, Iraqi police and the military said.
The death put the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war at 1,072 -- 817 killed in hostile action and 255 in nonhostile situations, according to the U.S. military.
Rumsfeld meets with Marines
The Associated Press reported that Rumsfeld, after breakfast with U.S. military leaders, held a "town meeting" event with about 1,500 Marines in an aircraft hanger at Asad airfield in Iraq's western desert.
Rumsfeld predicted that violence will increase in the run-up to January elections in Iraq, and the United States will probably not pull out any troops before then, the AP said.
"Our hope is that as we build up Iraqi forces we will be able to relieve the stress on our forces and see a reduction in coalition forces over some period of time, probably post-Iraqi election." Rumsfeld said, according to the AP.
"We're so fortunate to be able to count on you in this time of peril," he said.
It was the defense secretary's first visit to Iraq since June 28.
Other developments
Captors released 10 Turkish hostages in Iraq, the general manager of the construction company that employed them said Sunday. (Full story)A U.S. Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary force was killed Saturday in Anbar province, the U.S. military said Sunday. Officials did not release further details.CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Ayman Mohyeldin, Kianne Sadeq, Ingrid Formanek and Brent Sadler contributed to this report
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
