* Mark Tran
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 7 April 2009
Barack Obama today made his first visit to Baghdad since taking office, amid an upsurge of violence linked to rising political tensions.
Air Force One landed at Baghdad international airport 4:42pm local time (2.42 BST) amid heavy security, with the airport shut down and roads into the capital empty. "There is still a lot of work to do here," the Associated Press quoted Obama as saying.
The presidential motorcade rolled past troops standing to attention en route to a meeting with several hundred men and women among the 139,000 US forces stationed in the country.
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, told reporters on the plane Obama had decided to make the trip to Iraq as it was close to Turkey, where he had just been, and because he wanted to show his appreciation of the troops.
"Our men and women who are in harm's way, either in Iraq or Afghanistan, deserve our utmost respect and appreciation," Gibbs said.
Obama had planned to take a helicopter from the airport into the city to meet Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, but the threat of a severe sandstorm meant the pair would probably have to talk by telephone.
Shortly before leaving Turkey, the president held Iraq up as an example of the change he sought in the policies inherited from his predecessor.
"Moving the ship of state takes time," he told a group of students in Istanbul. He acknowledged his long-standing opposition to the war, but said that with US forces established in the country, withdrawal had to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence".
The US president arrived in Iraq after a hectic tour in Europe that took in the G20 economic summit in London, a Nato meeting in Strasbourg and a visit to Turkey, where he appealed for a "partnership with the Muslim world".
His surprise visit to Iraq came amid fears of a relapse into widespread violence after seven car bomb explosions in Baghdad yesterday – the largest number of explosions in one day in almost two years.
The attacks followed arrests of members of Sunni militias – known as awakening councils – whom government officials described as outlaws.
The arrests, which led to pitched street battles, have alarmed Sunni militias, who fear they will be cast aside by the Shia-led government despite their crucial role in helping the US tackle al-Qaida fighters in Iraq in 2007.
The Iraqi government is worried that the release of Iraqi prisoners may have fuelled the escalation in violence. Since the start of the year, the US military has been releasing up to 1,500 detainees a month from its detention centres, which it aims to close by the end of 2009 and transfer to Iraqi control.
The Iraqi government approved of the handover but is now concerned some senior militia members are among those being freed. Defence officials have confirmed that one former detainee has been responsible for a suicide attack in recent months.
The prospect of renewed sectarian violence on a large scale threatens to cast a pall over Obama's decision last month to pull out all US combat units by the summer of next year and the remaining personnel by the end of 2011.
Of the 142,000 US troops in Iraq, between 92,000 and 107,000 are to leave by August next year. The remainder will deal primarily with training Iraqi forces, supporting the Iraqi government and engaging in counter-terrorism.
A central plank of Obama's presidential campaign was to wind down the highly unpopular war in Iraq, which has cost more than 4,000 American lives, as well as those of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Efforts are being switched towards Afghanistan, where the US is fighting a resurgent Taliban, and to countering rising instability in neighbouring Pakistan.
Asked why Obama had come to Iraq, Robert Gibbs, the White House press spokesman, said: "there are several important reasons, not the least of which is to see and spend some time with the men and women who are serving our country honorably here."
During his visit to Turkey, Obama acknowledged that George Bush's war in Iraq had sown mistrust of the US, and he assured Muslims that the US was not "at war with Islam" but instead sought its partnership in order to pursue common goals.
Barack Obama today made his first visit to Baghdad since taking office, amid an upsurge of violence linked to rising political tensions.
Air Force One landed at Baghdad international airport 4:42pm local time (2.42 BST) amid heavy security, with the airport shut down and roads into the capital empty. "There is still a lot of work to do here," the Associated Press quoted Obama as saying.
The presidential motorcade rolled past troops standing to attention en route to a meeting with several hundred men and women among the 139,000 US forces stationed in the country.
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, told reporters on the plane Obama had decided to make the trip to Iraq as it was close to Turkey, where he had just been, and because he wanted to show his appreciation of the troops.
"Our men and women who are in harm's way, either in Iraq or Afghanistan, deserve our utmost respect and appreciation," Gibbs said.
Obama had planned to take a helicopter from the airport into the city to meet Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, but the threat of a severe sandstorm meant the pair would probably have to talk by telephone.
Shortly before leaving Turkey, the president held Iraq up as an example of the change he sought in the policies inherited from his predecessor.
"Moving the ship of state takes time," he told a group of students in Istanbul. He acknowledged his long-standing opposition to the war, but said that with US forces established in the country, withdrawal had to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence".
The US president arrived in Iraq after a hectic tour in Europe that took in the G20 economic summit in London, a Nato meeting in Strasbourg and a visit to Turkey, where he appealed for a "partnership with the Muslim world".
His surprise visit to Iraq came amid fears of a relapse into widespread violence after seven car bomb explosions in Baghdad yesterday – the largest number of explosions in one day in almost two years.
The attacks followed arrests of members of Sunni militias – known as awakening councils – whom government officials described as outlaws.
The arrests, which led to pitched street battles, have alarmed Sunni militias, who fear they will be cast aside by the Shia-led government despite their crucial role in helping the US tackle al-Qaida fighters in Iraq in 2007.
The Iraqi government is worried that the release of Iraqi prisoners may have fuelled the escalation in violence. Since the start of the year, the US military has been releasing up to 1,500 detainees a month from its detention centres, which it aims to close by the end of 2009 and transfer to Iraqi control.
The Iraqi government approved of the handover but is now concerned some senior militia members are among those being freed. Defence officials have confirmed that one former detainee has been responsible for a suicide attack in recent months.
The prospect of renewed sectarian violence on a large scale threatens to cast a pall over Obama's decision last month to pull out all US combat units by the summer of next year and the remaining personnel by the end of 2011.
Of the 142,000 US troops in Iraq, between 92,000 and 107,000 are to leave by August next year. The remainder will deal primarily with training Iraqi forces, supporting the Iraqi government and engaging in counter-terrorism.
A central plank of Obama's presidential campaign was to wind down the highly unpopular war in Iraq, which has cost more than 4,000 American lives, as well as those of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Efforts are being switched towards Afghanistan, where the US is fighting a resurgent Taliban, and to countering rising instability in neighbouring Pakistan.
Asked why Obama had come to Iraq, Robert Gibbs, the White House press spokesman, said: "there are several important reasons, not the least of which is to see and spend some time with the men and women who are serving our country honorably here."
During his visit to Turkey, Obama acknowledged that George Bush's war in Iraq had sown mistrust of the US, and he assured Muslims that the US was not "at war with Islam" but instead sought its partnership in order to pursue common goals.
