Blair's Surprise Visit Targeted by Rockets

Daily Telegraph

Bonnie Malkin and agencies

Tony Blair has insisted there were "real signs of change and progress" in Iraq - despite the deadly violence scarring daily life in the capital.

Mr Blair brushed aside a mortar attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone minutes before he arrived for his surprise final visit as prime minister. Downing Street said there was no evidence the attack had been directed at him.

Mr Blair, speaking after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, said: "There are mortar attacks and terrorist attacks happening every day, that's the reality. "The question is, what are we going to do in the face of these attacks?

"The answer is, we don't give in to them. The very purpose of the attacks, the suicide bombs, the mortars aimed in here, is so that you will carry nothing but that on your news and won't actually talk about the progress that's happening here."

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