Two mortar rounds exploded today in Baghdad’s highly-fortified Green Zone, where Iraq’s parliament and the US Embassy are based, police said.

SUNNI-LED insurgents killed 11 Iraqi security forces and wounded 14 in two separate attacks yesterday, as Shiites began celebrating a major Muslim holiday. Al-Qaida in Iraq threatened more attacks on diplomats here.

Gunmen killed an aide to Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric and two bodyguards in a drive-by shooting outside a Baghdad mosque today – an attack likely to stoke tensions between the Shiite majority and the Sunni minority, officials said.

American broadcasting giant CBS issued a damning independent review of mistakes over an investigative report on President George Bush’s National Guard service, sacking three news executives and a producer for their ”myopic zeal” in rushing it to air.

At least three rockets slammed into the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad early today, causing damage to the buildings that house many US workers and foreign journalists. There were no immediate reports of casualties.