US Vice President Joe Biden in surprise trip to Iraq (Roundup)

Sep 15, 2009, 14:10 GMT

Baghdad - US Vice President Joe Biden landed in Baghdad on Tuesday on his third trip to Iraq this year, the White House confirmed.

'Biden will convey the strong US commitment to Iraq's future and national unity,' a statement from his office said.

'President (Barack Obama) has asked the Vice President to provide sustained, high level focus from the White House on Iraq and this trip is part of that mission,' the statement continued.

During his visit, Biden will meet with US troops stationed in the country, and more than eight of Iraq's most senior politicians, including Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki.

Biden's visit came as violence continued across the country.

In the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, two separate attacks left one man killed and three wounded, police there told the German Press Agency dpa.

In the first attack, a man stabbed a member of Iraq's Turkmen minority to death in the southern neighbourhood of Aden.

In the centre of the city, a bomb blast wounded three people, including two policemen, police said.

Hundreds of Turkmen protesters filled the streets of Kirkuk last week to protest US plans to begin joint patrols of the disputed territories to the north of the city with Kurdish militias.

Politicians representing members of the Turkmen minority in the city have been among the most resolutely opposed to Kurdish ambitions to create an independent state with Kirkuk as its capital.

Violence also continued in central Iraq. In Hilla, a police officer died when a bomb attached to his car exploded, killing him instantly, police there told dpa.

The officer was on way to work at the local police station.

Hilla, the capital city of Babil province, lies 100 km south of Baghdad.

The region has been the site of persistent violence in recent days. On Monday, a bomb planted near a cafe in nearby town of Iskandariyah killed one person.

Four people were injured in that blast and were admitted to a nearby hospital in the town, roughly 40 kilometres south of Baghdad.

The bomb appeared to be retaliation for a police raid that on Sunday netted 21 men, many of them wanted for links to al-Qaeda, in connection with a string of recent bomb attacks and plotting further attacks in the area.

Seven of the suspects were captured in a raid in Iskandariyah. The other 14 were arrested in Hilla.

Those arrests, in turn, followed twin bombings that on Thursday killed two people in a market in Hilla and injured at least 21. Witnesses said the bombings followed a gunfight between militants and police.