Cheney Visits Iraq Amid Surge of Violence

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA - Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - (AP) Suicide bombers and gunmen killed nearly two
dozen people across Iraq on Sunday, shattering the relative quiet since the
parliament election, as Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit and
suggested the vote could pave the way for beginning a U.S. pullout.
Germany's government, meanwhile, said kidnappers had freed a German
woman who was taken hostage in northern Iraq more than three weeks ago.
Susanne Osthoff, a 43-year-old aid worker and archaeologist, was reported in
good condition at the German Embassy in Baghdad.
A series of attacks that began late Saturday ended three days of
near calm that began with Thursday's elections for the first full-term
parliament since Saddam Hussein's was toppled.
Most of the people killed in the new violence, which included two
suicide bombings, were police officers. The bloodshed came after authorities
eased stringent security measures ordered for the elections and traffic
returned to normal on the first full working day since the vote.
Cheney's visit, under heavy security, was so secret that Iraqi Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was surprised when he met him at the U.S.
ambassador's residence in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
Coming just hours before President Bush's address on Iraq, Cheney's
one-day s
 
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