Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Cheney arrives in Iraqi capital

BBC

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has arrived in Iraq's capital Baghdad, amid an ongoing drive by the US military to contain spiralling violence.

After meeting US generals, Mr Cheney is expected to urge Iraqi leaders to work harder to heal political rifts.

His trip follows an announcement that 35,000 more US troops may be sent to Iraq to maintain current levels.

A truck bomb has meanwhile killed at least 19 people in Irbil, a city in Iraq's usually peaceful Kurdish region.

Another 70 people were hurt in the explosion.

Television pictures showed the blast had destroyed a building and left a large crater on a road where interior ministry offices are located.

A witness quoted by Reuters news agency spoke of "fire coming out from the blast area. A man was burned to death."

A security official, First Lt Mariwan Kareem, told the agency the explosives in the truck had been hidden under kitchen cleaning products. The blast took place at 0800 local time. ......

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