Bush warns of upsurge of violence in Iraq
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Posted: 11:39 a.m. EDT (15:39 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Wednesday warned there will be an upsurge in violence in Iraq before next month's voting, but said the terrorists will fail. "Our troops are ready," he said.
Bush's remarks in the Rose Garden came a day after Iraqi and U.S. forces announced they had killed Abdullah Abu Azzam, the No. 2 al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, during a weekend raid in Baghdad. "This guy's a brutal killer," Bush said.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq issued an Internet statement denying that Abu Azzam was its deputy leader, calling him "one of al-Qaeda's many soldiers" and "the leader of one its battalions operating in Baghdad." The U.S.-led coalition, however, called Abu Azzam the mastermind of an escalation in suicide bombings that have killed nearly 700 people in Baghdad since April. (Full story)
"We can expect they'll do everything in their power to try to stop the march of freedom," Bush said. "And our troops are ready for it."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/28/bush.ap/index.html