Suicide bomber kills 21 in Iraq; 3 GIs die
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-23 08:37

However, Arabic satellite television stations aired footage showing an American colonel ducking for cover as the shell whistled overhead. Fearing more were on the way, U.S. security hustled U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, into the palace while American infantrymen and an Apache attack helicopter searched for the source of fire. The ceremony resumed a few minutes later.

The provincial governor, Hamad Hamoud Shagtti, received a symbolic key to the palace and a deputy governor raised the Iraqi flag. Dignitaries toured the palace complex, which Saddam ordered built for his mother in 1991 and which had served as a U.S. military regional headquarters until this month.

"Although 28 other coalition operating bases have already been turned over to Iraqi Security Forces control this year, the Tikrit Palace complex is the most significant transition of real estate thus far," a U.S. statement said.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, attend the hand over ceremony of a presidential palace in Tikrit, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005. [AP]

In a positive development, a senior government official said a representative of an unidentified insurgent group responded to an offer by President Jalal Talabani to talk with those willing to lay down their arms.

Presidential adviser Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei told Qatar's Al-Jazeera television that he had received a call from someone "who claimed to be a senior official of the resistance."

"I informed him that I would welcome him in a meeting to hear from him, but this doesn't indicate our acceptance of their demands," he said.

Al-Samaraei, a former head of military intelligence under Saddam, did not identify the caller, and it was unclear whether the overture represented a breakthrough.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Marines announced the end of a major operation to secure towns along the Syrian border used by al-Qaida to smuggle foreign fighters into Iraq. Ten U.S. Marines and 139 insurgents were killed in "Operation Steel Curtain," which began Nov. 5 with about 2,500 U.S. troops and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers, a military statement said.

U.S. commanders plan to establish a long-term presence in the area to prevent al-Qaida and its Iraqi allies from re-establishing themselves in the towns of Husaybah, Karabilah and Obeidi along the Euphrates River. They also want Sunni Arabs there to vote in the Dec. 15 national elections without fear of intimidation.

In Baghdad, Iraq's anti-corruption commission said that members of the former government who are under investigation will not be allowed to run in the elections.

A commission official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said Minister of Public Works Nasreen Berwari, who is the wife of Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer, and Hazem Shaalan, a former defense minister, are among those banned.