BAGHDAD, Iraq – Three explosions rocked the heavily fortified presidential palace compound Tuesday night where many U.S. officials live and work, wounding four people in the second such attack on the complex in the Iraqi capital in 10 days.
Spain, a close U.S. ally, withdrew many of its diplomats because of escalating violence.
Huge explosions thundered throughout central Baghdad as the insurgents targeted the 2-square-mile “Green Zone,” which includes coalition headquarters, the military press center and other key facilities.
Iraqi police said two mortars fell in the zone, but U.S. officials said the headquarters itself, located in one of the palaces, was not damaged.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Lt. Col. Jim Cassella said there appeared to have been three explosions, possibly from mortars or rockets.
The deteriorating security situation has prompted the United Nations, the international Red Cross and other international organizations to reduce their foreign staffs.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said Spain will withdraw 25 of the 29-member Spanish diplomatic staff from Baghdad. Spain has about 1,300 soldiers in Iraq and was one of the strongest supporters of the U.S.-led invasion.
Violence persisted Tuesday when a roadside bomb killed a 1st Armored Division soldier and wounded two others in Baghdad.
In the northern city of Mosul, insurgents using small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a hotel housing American troops but caused no casualties, the military said.
In Washington, two lawmakers hope to persuade Congress to equip 300 of the U.S. passenger planes used to ferry troops overseas with anti-missile devices.
The effort by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is designed to initiate proposals to protect all commercial jetliners from shoulder-fired missiles. Schumer and Boxer plan to introduce legislation to require the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation to install anti-missile protection on 300 of the commercial planes used in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program.
Also Tuesday, France denied that it helped convince Saddam Hussein the United States would not invade Iraq in March.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous dismissed as “completely unfounded” the claims reportedly made by former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz during interrogations by U.S. officials.
Aziz, who surrendered in April, told interrogators that Hussein may have been convinced by his Russian and French contacts that diplomatic actions in the United Nations would forestall a U.S. invasion, The Washington Post had reported.
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