Iraq invasion was "successful endeavor": Cheney

By Tabassum Zakaria

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavor" during a visit to Baghdad, on the same day a woman suicide bomber killed 40 people.

"If you look back on those five years it has been a difficult, challenging but nonetheless successful endeavor ... and it has been well worth the effort," Cheney, an architect of the invasion, said after meeting Iraqi leaders.

The Iraq war is a major issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. Entering its sixth year this week, it has cost the United States $500 billion. U.S. Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton said on Monday the final bill could be $1 trillion.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed. The military said two more soldiers died on Monday when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle near Baghdad.

In a northern district of the capital, six children were killed when a mortar round hit their home, Iraq's military said.

Shortly after Cheney spoke, a woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up in a cafe in the southern holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala, killing 40 people and wounding 71, police and health officials said. Bombs in Baghdad killed four and wounded 13.

"I was talking with a friend and eating bread a few meters away from the cafe. Suddenly I heard a huge explosion and I was thrown to the floor. I saw smoke and bodies," witness Mohammed Kadhem, 39, recounted after the Kerbala blast.

Cheney arrived as Republican presidential candidate John McCain was meeting Iraqi leaders as part of a Senate Armed Services Committee fact-finding mission.