During Visit to Iraq, Rice Promotes 'Coalescing Center'

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Secretary of State Rice made an unannounced visit here yesterday to promote what she called the "coalescing center" of Iraqi politics around the government of Prime Minister al-Maliki.

The visit followed a night of intense fighting in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad after the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday threatened to wage a full-scale war against the American-backed Iraqi government.

The fighting continued during Ms. Rice's visit. A ceremony at which she unveiled a plaque commemorating civilian deaths in the Green Zone was briefly delayed by a "duck and cover" alert, one of several during her six-hour visit to the fortified compound housing the American Embassy and much of the Iraqi government.

The first of three rocket attacks occurred while she was meeting with Mr. Maliki at his office. In the second attack, as she returned to the Green Zone from a meeting with President Talabani if Iraq, a rocket struck in an area between the embassy and the main American dining facility. A U.S. official said two people were injured.

The third attack came as Ms. Rice was completing a tour of the tactical operations center in the embassy on her way to the ceremony. Those waiting for her to appear took shelter in hallways until the all-clear was sounded, while Ms. Rice stayed in the operations center and watched tracking screens indicating the rocket's launch site in Sadr City and its trajectory.

The Green Zone has come under steady bombardment from Sadr City, home to Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, since American and Iraqi troops began moving into the area several weeks ago.

Abu Zainad, a spokesman for Sadr in Sadr City, said American helicopters hovered over the area all night. In recent weeks, American forces have been dropping Hellfire missiles and low-yield bombs in eastern Baghdad targeting fighters firing rockets.

Few helicopters were flying yesterday, however, as dust hung over the city. American air operations have been sporadically hindered over the past week as severe dust storms have swept through the area. Visibility was so poor during Ms. Rice's visit that security officials cancelled plans to fly into the city from an American military airfield and instead made the trip by road convoy.

Responding to Mr. Sadr's threat, Ms. Rice said: "I don't know whether to take him seriously or not." She noted that Mr. Sadr has taken up residence in Iran, while "his followers can go to their deaths" in Iraq.

Repeating what she and several Bush administration officials have said in recent weeks, Ms. Rice said she recognized that the "Sadr trend" is a political movement as well as a militia. The administration is hoping that military pressure will quell militia actions and persuade non-violent Sadrists to participate in provincial elections scheduled for October.

"Any Iraqi who's willing to lay down their arms and come into the political process and contest in the arena is welcome to do so," she said. "That would include the Sadrist trend."

The fighting in Sadr City began after a crackdown in late March by Iraqi security forces against what Mr. Maliki called militia "outlaws and criminals" in the southern city of Basra. Anger over the situation in Basra led to an eruption of fighting in Sadr City. Iraqi and American forces have moved into the area, erecting walls to close off the southern end of the enclave where most of the rockets are launched. "The prime minister, the Iraqi government, and the broad political leadership, since the Basra and Baghdad events that began last month, have been unified in their view that the time has come for an end to militia presence," the American Ambassador to Baghdad who accompanied Ms. Rice, Ryan C. Crocker, said. "We heard that again today from the whole leadership spectrum."

"How this will proceed, I can't predict," he said. "The Iraqis are in the lead on this."

Ms. Rice told reporters aboard her aircraft Saturday night that "we've seen the coalescing of a center" in Iraqi politics. "The Sunni leadership, the Kurdish leadership and elements of the Shia are working together better than at any time " she said.