Rice Urges Unity In Iraq Visit
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a surprise visit to Iraq on Friday, invited Sunni Arabs to speak their minds in new voting, saying that "differences can be a strength."
Sectarian and ethnic rivalries fuel the daily violence and bloodshed in Iraq, and have threatened to derail a U.S.-backed roadmap for establishing democracy. Elections Dec. 15 for a permanent government are the latest test of Iraq's new representative system, and another marker toward the day when U.S. forces and advisers may be able to quit the country.
"We do support the principles of democracy and support efforts to bridge the differences among Iraqis," Rice said following a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Divisions "may be differences of history or tradition, culture or ethnicity, but in a democratic process these differences can be a strength rather than a handicap," she said.
Elsewhere, the military said three U.S. troops were killed in combat operations.
Two U.S. soldiers died after being hit by small-arms fire Thursday during combat operations in Khaldiyah, 75 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The soldiers were members of an army unit assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, operating in western Iraq.
In separate violence along the Syrian border, another Marine attached to the 2nd Division was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Karabilah, 200 miles west of Baghdad, another military statement said. The Marine died in Operation Steel Curtain, a major push to take control of the Syrian border.
The names of the deceased and their unit were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
As of Friday, at least 2,059 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In other developments:
In a Veterans Day appearance on the CBS News' The Early Show, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, paid tribute to those who had given their lives in the war.
"To each of the families who have lost a loved one, I don't know how you find the right words to tell them how much we appreciate and respect the sacrifice that they have made, Generations of Americans have made those sacrifices that we could live in freedom, as we do today," Pace said.
"This enemy is very, very real," Pace added. "And the sacrifices we made, although very dear, are, in fact going to be looked upon by future generations as, again, a great generation of Americans."
Rice's trip's was her second to Iraq as secretary of state. She also visited the northern city of Mosul, where she reviewed three combined civilian-military rapid response units meant to restore order in areas after militants are driven off.
She said if Iraq doesn't become stable, "generations of Americans would also be condemned to fear."
Rice's trip came a day after a suicide bomber killed 35 people at a Baghdad restaurant favored by police, and a car bomb killed seven at an Iraqi army recruiting center to the north. More than 30 people were wounded.
Al Qaeda in Iraq posted an Internet claim that it staged the attack in retaliation for U.S. and Iraqi operations near the Syrian border. Earlier, it claimed responsibility for Wednesday night's deadly hotel bombings in neighboring Jordan, linking those blasts to the conflict in Iraq.
Samiya Mohammed, who lives near the restaurant, said she rushed out when she heard the explosion.
"There was bodies, mostly civilians, and blood everywhere inside the place. This is a criminal act that only targeted and hurt innocent people having their breakfast," she said.
There were no Americans in the area, she said. "I do not understand why most of the time it is the Iraqis who are killed," she added.
Thursday's other big attack came in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of the capital, where a car bomb blew up in the midst of men outside an Iraqi army recruiting center. Seven were killed and 13 wounded, police Capt. Hakim al-Azawi said.
The men were former officers during Saddam's regime, Azawi said.
Last week, Iraq's defense minister invited officers of Saddam's army up to the rank of major to enlist in the new Iraqi army. It was an overture to disaffected Sunni Arab ex-soldiers, many of whom joined the insurgency after the Americans abolished the Iraqi armed forces in 2003.
In another sign of the country's sectarian and criminal violence, Iraqi soldiers found the decomposing bodies of 27 people near Jassan, a town close to the border with Iran, Col. Ali Mahmoud said. They were not immediately identified.
Others bodies have been found in the area, and officials suspect death squads from the Shiite majority, the Sunni minority and criminal gangs are responsible for the killings.
At least 653 bodies have been found since Iraq's interim government was formed April 28, according to an Associated Press count.
The identities of many are never determined, but at least 116 are known to be Sunni Arabs, 43 Shiites and one Kurd. Some are likely victims of crimes, including kidnappings, which are rampant in some cities and as big a threat to Iraqis as political violence.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, told reporters Thursday that U.S. and Iraqi troops in Husaybah killed 37 insurgents, arrested 165 suspected insurgents and found 28 weapons caches.
"We have indeed seen a reduction in the number of suicide attacks in Baghdad," Lynch said, adding that he believed the operation along the Syrian border was an important factor.
He said a key component of the operation was the occupation of towns by Iraqi forces once combat operations are finished.