11/06/2007

Brown visits besieged Baghdad

Gordon Brown has visited Baghdad as part of a "fact-finding" tour.

The trip is Mr Brown's second to Iraq and he had talks with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki with tight security.

Mr Brown described the trip as "an assessment more than anything else" to "listen and learn."

He met with senior officers, including British commander Lt General Graham Lamb, US General David Petraeus, US officials, the US Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

The Chancellor, who is prime-minister-in-waiting told reporters: "I think the issue in Iraq is this - how can we help the Iraqi people not only run their own security and build a democracy but offer a prosperity they are perfectly capable of doing?"

Before Mr Brown left Baghdad's heavily fortified "Green Zone", the most heavily guarded area of the capital, it came under mortar fire.

Meanwhile MPs in London are to examine the merits of Conservative calls for an inquiry into the Iraq war.

(SP/JM)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

10 July 2003
Two more US troops killed in Iraq ambushes
Two US soldiers have been killed in separate incidents near Baghdad yesterday. On Wednesday evening, one soldier was shot and killed after his patrol was ambushed about 20 miles south the capital.
21 April 2005
Iraqi PM escapes suicide bomber attack
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi survived a suicide bomb assassination attempt on his convoy in Baghdad yesterday. Two policemen are believed to have died in the attack, the fifth assassination attempt on Mr Allawi’s life since he took office.
21 April 2005
No survivors in Iraq helicopter crash
A commercial helicopter has crashed just outside Baghdad, killing all nine people on board. Three Bulgarian crew members and six passengers, whose nationalities are not yet known, died when the Russian-built MI-8 helicopter came down about 12 miles north of the Iraqi capital around 2pm local time.
08 April 2004
Hundreds killed as US troops battle with Iraqi militants
More than 35 US soldiers and 450 Iraqis are thought to have been killed in country-wide clashes between rebel militias and Coalition forces since the weekend, according to reports emerging from Iraq today. Around 300 Iraqis are thought to have been killed in Fallujah where US forces have been attempting to regain control of the city.
08 March 2004
Straw welcomes signing of Iraqi interim constitution
The Foreign Secretary has welcomed the official signing of the interim constitutional document by the Iraqi governing council. The signing ceremony took place in the capital Baghdad today and is the template for governance after the official handover of power from the US-led administration to the governing council in July.