Iraq: President George Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad yesterday to try to bolster the new government of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, days after US forces killed al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq.
"I have come to not only look you in the eye; I've also come to tell you that when America gives its word, it will keep its word," Mr Bush told Mr Maliki, who faces continued violence across Iraq and a new threat of vengeance from the slain al-Qaeda leader's successor.
Mr Bush also thanked the US military during the visit, his first since November 2003. "America is safe. The world is better off," he told troops and US embassy personnel in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone".
A US air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, last week, but the deaths of 14 people in a wave of bombings in the oil city of Kirkuk yesterday were seen as a bid by al-Qaeda to show its campaign of violence would go on.
"Our swords are poised above your necks," said a statement signed by Zarqawi's successor, the little-known Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, on a website often used by Islamic militants.
Security concerns meant Mr Bush's journey to Baghdad was top secret and many of his own aides were kept in the dark.
Only vice-president Dick Cheney, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice were aware Mr Bush had slipped away from Camp David abruptly on Monday night. He spent several hours in Baghdad before returning to Washington.
Aides said he was in the cockpit of Air Force One when it landed in the Iraqi capital. He then took an eight-minute helicopter ride in searing heat to the "Green Zone" for talks with the Iraqi cabinet and US commander in Iraq Gen George Casey at the US embassy.
Mr Bush's meeting with the Iraqi cabinet was connected by video to Camp David, where Messrs Cheney, Rumsfeld and Dr Rice remained.
The president told Mr Maliki he carried heavy responsibilities. "The decisions you and your cabinet make will determine as to whether or not your country succeeds, can govern itself, can defend itself, can sustain itself," he said.
The US death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion is approaching 2,500, and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died.
In one of the Kirkuk attacks, a car bomb exploded outside the house of a senior police officer, seriously wounding him and killing one of his bodyguards, police said.
As police and US forces gathered in the area, a roadside bomb exploded, killing 10 civilians, in a common tactic by Sunni insurgents seeking to topple the Shia-led government backed by the US.
A senior Iraqi defence ministry official said more than 40,000 Iraqi and US forces backed by tanks would launch a crackdown in Baghdad today, in what would be one of the biggest such operations since the 2003 war.
"Armoured personnel carriers and tanks will be used. We will depend on intelligence to find suspects," Maj Gen Abdel Aziz Mohammed reported.
US and Iraqi forces have held several such operations aimed at rooting out insurgents, but they have failed to stem a campaign which is dominated by Saddam Hussein loyalists. - (Reuters)