Attacks kill 11 as Rumsfeld makes surprise visit to Iraq

[mrbassman03]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/111101/1/.html

BAGHDAD : US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a surprise visit to Iraq, predicted violence would increase ahead of January's elections as rebel attacks killed 11 people including a US soldier.

But giving a boost to efforts to restore security, rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army militia was poised to disarm in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City, while leaders from the rebel bastion of Fallujah were negotiating a truce with the Iraqi government.


Eying January's high stakes elections, Rumsfeld made an unannounced trip to Baghdad and the Al-Asad airbase in Fallujah's restive province of Al-Anbar for talks with Iraqi officials and US commanders.

"We expect the level of violence and difficulties to increase between now and the Iraqi elections in January," he told hundreds of troops at al-Asad. "So I don't see that we would have a reduction in US and coalition forces between now and January."