Fresh violence in Kirkuk, but Rice hails the escalation's "good start" during her Iraq visit

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Rice makes unannounced visit to Baghdad, praises crackdown

February 18, 2007

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday, arriving as US and Iraqi troops made early gains in a new crackdown against militants in the Iraqi capital.

"They are off to a good start," Dr Rice, whose plane circled over Baghdad for 30 minutes before landing, said of the military operation.

"The Baghdad security plan is just beginning to unfold and I think it is important to realise it was not ever intended to be a single day, but to ramp up over time."

She said it was important for the Iraqi authorities to use the "breathing space" well.

But in fresh violence in the northern city of Kirkuk, a double car bombing killed at least 10 people and wounded 60 in a crowded market, police sources said.

The explosions took place in the Rahim Awa district, a predominantly Kurdish area of the ethnically mixed city. Several cars and shops were burnt out.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rice-makes-unannounced-visit-to-baghdad-praises-crackdown/2007/02/17/1171405500526.html

[Botany]

1. Rice makes unannounced visit to Baghdad

:grr:

That headline should tell the world how fucked up Iraq is because
after 3 3/4 years we have to sneak in and out.

"They are off to a good start," Dr Rice, whose plane circled over Baghdad
for 30 minutes before landing, said of the military operation.

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2. you can read the cynicism in the report

Rice is shameless

[Vinca]

3. Did she leave the Green Zone? Enough said. nt

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4. Oh it's working great all right! For the guerillas!

Now that the Mahdi Army's forced to lie low, the Sunnis are redeploying their guerillas to Diyala Province up north of Bagdhad so they can hit US troops harder there because they no longer have to worry about Sunni neighborhoods in Bagdhad being overrun. It's like stomping on a puddle of water with a boot and thinking you have defeated the water.

Brilliant stuff.

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5. Their timing is so fucking obvious it's ludicrous.