Zarqawi's Hideout Was Secret Till Last Minute

Caldwell declined Saturday to give more details about Zarqawi's wounds, saying it was better to wait for the autopsy reports.

Meanwhile on Saturday, roadside bombs in Baghdad killed nine people and wounded more than 40, the Associated Press reported. Gunmen also killed at least 13 people in sporadic violence nationwide.

The first blast targeted a police patrol at the al-Sadriya market, killing four people and wounding 27 but missing the patrol, police said. The market is in a mixed Shiite-Sunni Arab neighborhood in central Baghdad.

Hours later, a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in Karradah, a popular shopping area in downtown Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 14.

Caldwell also said U.S. forces in the western city of Ramadi had stepped up concentrated missions seeking specific targets there, but said no all-out operation was underway.

Ramadi is the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni Arab province of Anbar, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said last week that parts of Anbar are under control of insurgents. While the U.S. military has suspended embeds there for Western journalists, some Arabic-language TV networks reported this week that a widely talked-of U.S. military operation in Anbar was underway.

Staff writer Barton Gellman in Washington contributed to this report.