Rice Pushy in Iraq?

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice looks on as U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak answer questions during a joint news conference after their meeting 19 April 2008 at Camp David in Maryland.

20 April 2008

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Iraq to promote fresh political gains she says are flowing from government-led assaults on ‘radical militias.’

Rice's brief heavily guarded visit Sunday was not announced in advance, in keeping with security precautions adopted by all top U.S. officials who remain targets of the anti-American resistance fighters five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The top U.S. diplomat was meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his Kurdish president and other top officials. She was also honoring Americans killed in the Green Zone, the heavily protected compound that houses the U.S. embassy and much of the Iraqi central government.

Rice traveled to Iraq, she said, to promote new Sunni and Kurd support for the U.S. backed Shiite government.

U.S. officials usually travel from the airport by helicopter because it's safer, but on Sunday Rice went to the Green Zone by motorcade because of a sand and dust storm.

En route to Iraq, Rice told reporters traveling with her that she is not trying to make a point about security gains in Iraq by visiting now.