Donald Rumsfeld Salutes Troops in Saddam's Hometown
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The top gun at the Pentagon toady became the toast of Tikrit, at least among the U.S. forces who are there. The defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, saying they're doing a truly outstanding job. CNN's Ben Wedeman is joining us now live to tell us more about that, as well as another attack on a mosque -- this one in Baghdad. Ben -- fill us in on all of these developments.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Secretary Rumsfeld is now on his second day of this trip to Iraq. Of course, the precise details of his trip are not being let out because of security reasons, but he spent the day up in Tikrit meeting with the troops. Tikrit, of course, being the ancestral homeland of Saddam Hussein, a town that has been a very rough town for U.S. forces. They've been coming under almost daily attack up there, most recently a fairly intense firefight. Now, Secretary Rumsfeld, he went to the main U.S. base there, which is actually Saddam Hussein's old main palace in Tikrit, and there he gave a brief pep talk to the troops.</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It's also important to this entire region that we continue and succeed in what it is that you're doing, and it's also important to the world, and certainly the American people.</s>WEDEMAN: And after that, apparently, he took a helicopter ride over the city of Mosul, and he went over the house where Uday and Qusay, the two sons of Saddam Hussein, were killed in a gun battle with U.S. troops last July. Now, Mr. Rumsfeld is obviously very concerned about the situation of U.S. troops here. He says he has no intention of increasing their numbers. What he wants to do is bolter Iraqi security forces. Now, meanwhile in Baghdad, a disturbing incident for many Iraqis. At 5:45 a.m., three men drove up outside a Sunni mosque in the northern part of the city. They opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles and handguns, apparently wounding three worshipers there, one of them, according to the Iraqi police, fairly critically. Now, this, of course, is raising the concern of many here that there could be intensified clashes between Sunni Arabs and Shiites under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Of course, the Sunni Arabs were the favored people, and the Shiites really were the ones who bore the brunt of his repression. Now, also today marks one week since the car bombing outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. And today in Najaf and Kufa (ph), which is a town just to the north of Najaf, there were massive demonstrations by Shiites there, expressing solidarity with the dead leader, but also, according to one account coming from there, calling for death to the Baathists and to the United States. Not a very good sign while Secretary Rumsfeld is in country -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I can only imagine the security surrounding the defense secretary. Ben Wedeman joining us from Baghdad. Thanks, Ben, very much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.