A bomb struck a market in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, killing five people and injuring 15, police said. The blast occurred in the mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood New Baghdad, police Lt. Bilal Ali said.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Iraq. Rumsfeld, who arrived with no public notice as a security precaution, said he would discuss the Baghdad security situation with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
According to AFP, Rumsfeld told the traveling press that he also wanted to discuss with Maliki the militias attached to the Shiite parties that lead the government which have been implicated in the unrest. According to him, the militias needed to be handled politically.
Rumsfeld conveyed US commanders were not yet at a point of making recommendations on future American forces levels in Iraq.
He insisted that US troops accused of killing or abusing Iraqi civilians would be dealt with through US military justice system. "We have arrangements so that our people are processed by our people. And that's under the coalition provisional authority that has been blessed by the Iraqi government. That's the way things will be handled," Rumsfeld said.
