Turkey's president started the first visit by a Turkish head of state in more than 30 years on Monday. According to the AP, Abdullah Gul was welcomed at Baghdad International Airport by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and other officials. He was to hold talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during the visit.
Turkey is pressing Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government to stop Kurdish gunmen from launching cross-border attacks on Turkey from their bases in Iraq.
The last Turkish president to visit Iraq was Fahri Koruturk in 1976.
Shortly before Gul's arrival, a bomb went off on the western outskirts of the capital, killing at least five and wounding a dozen others. The bombing occurred in Abu Ghraib and was the second fatal blast there in less than two weeks. A suicide attacker killed 33 people on March 10.
An Interior Ministry official and the U.S. military said it was a roadside bomb, but a local police official said it was a car bomb that exploded in a garage.
The U.S. military said four people were killed and three wounded. It added that second roadside bomb was found at the site and detonated without incident.
