The United States will stay committed to what it hopes will be an inclusive Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on a visit to Baghdad today, but violence flared even as she touched down in the Iraqi capital.
Ms Rice made an unannounced visit, her second to Iraq this year, during which she said she wanted help ease the sectarian tensions that have dominated the campaign for a parliamentary election on December 15th.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Three Iraqi policemen on patrol were wounded when a car bomb exploded in a central area of Baghdad within minutes of Ms Rice's touching down in a military helicopter in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.
She flew in from Bahrain to the northern city of Mosul, scene of violence between Sunni Arabs and Kurds, and said her goal was to urge Iraqis to bridge sectarian and ethnic divisions and create a single country where all felt "fully protected".
"These differences can be a strength rather than a handicap," Ms Rice, who is touring the Middle East and Asia, said in a joint news conference in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
She said Washington would support no particular candidate next month, despite complaints from some that US officials are working behind the scenes to favour certain groupings. Sectarian tension between Saddam Hussein's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority and the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government have dominated the election campaign.
Ms Rice's visit came as US public and congressional support wanes for the war in which more than 2,000 troops have died and many thousands more have been wounded. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or wounded in daily acts of violence.
"Here in Iraq we are going to stay committed because the Iraqis are fine and brave and courageous people," Ms Rice earlier told reporters travelling with her in Mosul.
President George W. Bush today claimed Democratic critics of the Iraq war were trying to rewrite history by accusing the White House of manipulating intelligence to gain support for the war.
Mr Bush, in a Veteran's Day speech in Pennsylvania, fired back at Democrats who have been escalating accusations that the president misused intelligence to justify an increasingly unpopular war.
Mr Bush said he respected his opponents' right to disagree with him about the decision to go to war against Iraq and that as president he accepted responsibility for what has taken place there under his watch. But, he added, "it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began."
A makeshift bomb was detonated as a military fuel convoy drove along the main road between Mosul and Kirkuk, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, today. Witnesses said two US soldiers were killed but the military had no word on casualties.
The US military confirmed today that three US troops had died after two separate attacks the day before.
A Marine was killed by a makeshift roadside bomb in Karabila near the Syrian border during the latest offensive aimed at stopping the flow of weapons and fighters along the Euphrates Valley. Two other soldiers were shot dead near Khalidiya, 85 kilometres (55 miles) west of Baghdad.