World

Rumsfeld Drops In On Iraq

February 11, 2005 / 7:44 AM EST / CBS/AP

Violence continued as usual in Baghdad Friday, even during a surprise one day visit to the area by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in Iraq to review U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.

Rumsfeld was out of harm's way, at the U.S. military base Camp Dublin, as word came of the latest rebel attack in the Iraqi capital.

Witnesses say masked gunmen opened fire on a crowd at a Baghdad bakery Friday, killing several workers.

Bystanders said 11 people were killed, but there has been no confirmation of the number of casualties and witness accounts are often proved wrong.

The shooting took place in the New Baghdad neighborhood, a predominantly Shiite Muslim area of the capital. It was unclear why the gunmen attacked the bakery.

Rumsfeld arrived in Iraq early Friday - in a visit which, for security reasons, was not announced in advance. It comes a day after more than 50 people were reported dead in insurgency-related violence, which is on the rise after the Jan. 30 national elections.

Among the stops on Rumsfeld's program for Friday is a visit to wounded GIs.

Rumsfeld is the most senior U.S. official to arrive in Iraq since the nation's elections on Jan. 30. Rumsfeld's spokesman Larry di Rita said the purpose of the trip was "to recognize the great success of the elections."

Rumsfeld flew to Iraq Friday from France, where he met with NATO defense ministers and discussed ways to increase their contributions to the U.S.-led efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In December, Rumsfeld made a surprise Christmas Eve visit to U.S. troops in Mosul, where he met many of the victims of an insurgent attack on a mess tent that had been bombed several days earlier. He also shared a Christmas Eve dinner with troops at a base outside of Baghdad and, amid tight security, visited others in Tikrit.

In other recent developments:

Five bodies in Iraqi National Guard uniforms were found Thursday in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Hospital director Ala al Ani said residents reported that the slain men were among 13 guardsmen who went missing recently.

Thursday, a car bomb detonated by remote control exploded in Baghdad, killing two Iraqis but missing a U.S. military convoy which had just passed through the area.

A videotape obtained Thursday by Associated Press Television News showed gunmen killing four blindfolded men who identified themselves as Iraqi policemen. The video showed the four young men sitting cross-legged on the floor of a room. A date stamp on the video indicated it was recorded Feb. 3. Several gunmen with assault rifles standing just steps away from the captives fired repeatedly at the men one by one, shooting them in the back of their heads.

Bodies of 20 Iraqi truck drivers who had been shot were found dumped on a road, their hands bound behind their backs, police Capt. Ahmed Ismail said. Some of the trucks were owned by the government, Ismail said.

Two insurgents were killed Thursday in clashes with U.S. forces north of Ramadi, residents and hospital officials said. U.S. forces sealed off access to the town of Sufiya and took up positions in houses and on rooftops.

A body was found riddled with bullets in Mosul, police said, and in the northern oil center of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb exploded several minutes after a U.S. military patrol passed, killing one Iraqi, police said. In Baghdad, gunmen shot to death a hospital receptionist.

In Salman Pak, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad, insurgents attacked Iraqi policemen who came to look for weapons, showering them with machine-gun fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds. Iraq's Interior Ministry said 14 policemen were killed, 65 were wounded and six were missing after the two-hour gunbattle. Four insurgents died in the battle.

Rumsfeld's visit comes at a tense time for Iraq - which is awaiting election results and taking precautions to prevent a religious holiday from becoming a target of opportunity for insurgents.

CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports election officials had expected to release final results Thursday from the vote for a National Assembly. On Wednesday, however, election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said the deadline would not be met because ballots in about 300 boxes had to be recounted.

"We don't know when this will finish," Ayar said. "This will lead to a little postponement in announcing the results."

Results are expected within the next few days.

Iraq Thursday began the ten day countdown to Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite Muslim calendar. The holy day marks the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in a 7th century battle for leadership of the Islamic world.

Last year, the flocks of pilgrims gathering at Shiite shrines for Ashoura became deadly targets for rebels, who staged simultaneous suicide bomb attacks that claimed 181 lives.

This year, Iraq's borders are being sealed for five days, in the hope that tighter security will prevent a repeat of that bloodbath.

Late Thursday, a strong explosion shook the Rahmaniyah neighborhood of western Baghdad late Thursday, and residents said the blast occurred near a small Shiite mosque. Witnesses said there were casualties.