President Barack Obama took a surprise detour from his tour of Europe, and flew to Iraq today. He landed just hours after a car bomb exploded in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. The White House has mad no advance announcements of Obama's visit due to security concerns.

His surprise visit came at the end of an eight-day long overseas trip that included NATO and economic summits in Europe. Obama had spent the past two days in Turkey, where he flew out of this morning.

Today's trip to Iraq was Obama's third to the country of Iraq, and his first since taking office in January. Having been in office for 11 weeks now, Obama has announced plans to withdraw most US combat troups from Iraq on a 19-month timetable. As many as 50,000 soldiers may remain in the country at the end of the 19 months to perform counterterrorism duties.