US Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice, on a heavily guarded surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday, urged patience for the country's fragile new government and said Iraqis have made remarkable political progress that can overcome a recent surge of violence.
"Obviously there is a security situation ... I want and have wanted to go to Iraq at the right time, and the right time is when they had a new government," Rice said en route to the town Saladhin in Kurdish northern Iraq.
Rice flew immediately to the mountain stronghold of Kurdish Democratic Party Massoud Barzani. She rode in an Apache military helicopter under extremely tight security. The one day trip was Rice's first visit to Iraq as the nation's top diplomat.
Rice said she wanted to discuss the new government's upcoming tasks including writing a constitution, as well as addressing the country's security and infrastructure needs.
The visit came as U.S. Marines wrapped up a weeklong campaign against "insurgents" far away along the Syrian border.
"Yes, the insurgency is very violent, but you can beat insurgencies not just militarily," Rice told reporters. "You can beat them having a political alternative that is strong," and in which all Iraqis are invested, Rice said.
Rice was the first top U.S. official to visit the country since the new government was sworn in. Her trip was weeks in the planning, but kept secret even from senior State Department officials until the last minute.
Meanwhile, the governor of the province of Diyala survived one of two bombings in Baqouba early Sunday that a hospital official said killed four people and injured 37.
The two explosions detonated about five minutes apart in a busy street as people were heading to work in downtown Baqouba, located 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
The first targeted the convoy of Diyala governor Raed Rashid Hamid al-Mullah Jawad, who escaped unharmed, said police Col. Mudhafar Muhammed, according to The AP.
A second bomb exploded minutes later about 500 yards away, rocking a crowded Baqouba area where the city's police, army, court and taxation headquarters are located.
Raed Abdul Munim, head of Baqouba General Hospital, said the bodies of four people killed in the explosions were brought to his hospital, along with 37 people who were injured.
In the meantime, the bodies of 38 men shot execution-style were found dumped at an abandoned chicken farm, west of the capital, police said Sunday.
"Residents of the area called us and said a garbage truck came early this morning and dumped the bodies and we confirmed it," a police official told Reuters.
The bodies of 10 Iraqi soldiers killed by "insurgents" have been discovered in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, according to the Defense Ministry on Sunday.
In a statement, cited by Reuters, it said the bodies were found on Saturday and the men had been dead for around two days.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
