Wolfowitz visits US troops in Iraq

Wolfowitz is to assess progress towards troop rotation in Iraq

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has flown unannounced into Iraq to visit American troops.

During his last visit in October, the hotel where he was staying was hit by rocket-propelled grenades.

"It's exciting to be back," he said, adding that he planned to meet commanders to discuss progress towards a massive rotation of troops.

His visit comes after another day of violence in Iraq, which claimed up to 18 lives in three separate incidents.

As many as six people were killed when a residential area of Baghdad came under rocket or mortar fire twice late on Saturday.

Earlier, a suspected suicide attack on a police station in the northern city of Mosul killed at least nine people.

And three American soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up between the towns of Tikrit and Kirkuk.

Mr Wolfowitz flew into Iraq from Germany, where he had been visiting US soldiers due to be deployed to Iraq as part of the troop rotation.

'Enormous undertaking'

The US plans to reduce its military presence from 130,000 to 105,000 by the spring, in the biggest turnover since World War Two.

Mr Wolfowitz described it as an "enormous undertaking".

US troops continue to face daily attacks

He said one of the main purposes for his visit was to meet commanders and troops "and get a sense of what they see [as] the situation on the ground."

"[I will] assess progress in this country since I was last here," he also told reporters travelling with him.

"It's been a very eventful three months that has included the capture of Saddam Hussein, which is a major event for the Iraqi people."

He dismissed criticism of the US's decision to go to war based on intelligence that now appears to have been flawed.

"You have to make decisions based on the intelligence you have, not on the intelligence you can discover later," he said.

He said deposing Saddam Hussein was important to bring freedom to the Iraqi people and the Middle East.

US troops continue to face daily attacks from insurgents opposed to coalition forces in Iraq.

According to US Defence Department figures up to 30 January, 246 American soldiers have died in combat since President Bush declared major hostilities over on 1 May 2003.