US sends more troops into Iraq

Dashing speculation that the US would soon drawn down its forces in Iraq, the Pentagon has announced that it is moving 1,500 more combat troops from Kuwait into the hostile Anbar province of Iraq, an insurgent stronghold.

The Guardian reports that US military sources say the deployment should only last about four months, but it also means that the Bush administration's plan to reduce troops numbers after the formation of the Iraqi government will not be possible for some time.

There were about 130,000 US troops in Iraq before the deployment and that figure is unlikely to change for several months, military officials said.

"The situation in al-Anbar province is currently a challenge but is not representative of the overall security situation in Iraq, which continues to improve as the Iraqi security forces increasingly take the lead," Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing said yesterday.

But the bloodshed nationwide showed no sign of abating yesterday when bomb attacks killed at least 46 people, wounding dozens more.

The Washington Times reported on Tuesday that the number of troops in Iraq will remain around 133,000, even if one or two Army brigades are cut from the total of 15 now in Iraq.

The officials said Army Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, may decide he does not need a replacement brigade for one going home. Yet the overall force level will likely stay the same because new training teams are entering the country to embed with units of the Iraq Security Force (ISF). Gen. Casey is also periodically tapping an Army "call-forward" brigade of about 4,000 soldiers in Kuwait for periodic duty in Iraq, most recently in Baghdad. Such moves, when coupled with the influx of trainers, also increase the overall force level.

But cutting the number of brigades would mean that fewer US troops would be in combat, and more would be training Iraqi troops.

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Meanwhile, The Boston Globe reports that a new report from the Pentagon to Congress shows that the level of insurgent attacks against US troops is at its highest level since commanders in Iraq began keeping track of such attacks two years ago.

In its quarterly update to Congress, the Pentagon reported that from Feb. 11 to May 12, as the new Iraqi unity government was being established, insurgents staged an average of more than 600 attacks per week nationwide. From August 2005 to early February, when Iraqis elected a parliament, insurgent attacks averaged about 550 per week; at its lowest point, before the United States handed over sovereignty in the spring of 2004, the attacks averaged about 400 per week.

The vast majority of the attacks – from crude bombing attempts and shootings to more sophisticated, military-style assaults and suicide attacks – were targeted at US-led coalition military forces, but the majority of deaths have been of civilians, who are far more vulnerable to insurgent tactics.

The report also said that there are signs that the insurgents, mostly composed of former members of the regime of Saddam Hussein, are cooperating more closely with Al Qaeda in Iraq and other foreign fighters. The survey also offered several positive notes. Included in the report is a survey that showed most Iraqis don't like the insurgents using violence as a political tool. In addition "a growing number of Iraqi security forces can operate without US military support, more ethnic groups are represented in the security forces, oil production has remained steady, and more than 10,000 new business registrations have been issued."

Military officials speaking to the media after the report was released said it is unlikely, however, that the level of insurgent attacks will decrease significantly before 2007.

United Press International reports that those 1,500 troops headed to Iraq from Kuwait are probably headed for Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, which would double the number of US troops in the area. Echoing the findings of the Pentagon report, Ramadi is a city that has slowly been taken over by Sunni Arab insurgents. US officials say after insurgents lost their base in nearby Fallujah, they set up operations in Ramadi.

The number of insurgents, many believed to be associated with Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi, has grown since the 2004 battle for control of Fallujah. The nearby town of about 200,000 had served as a home base for insurgents because US forces were precluded by an agreement with the town from entering. With few American targets to strike nearby, insurgents often "commuted" to Ramadi to engage US forces. Since the start of the war, Ramadi has been considered the single most dangerous deployment for US troops.

UPI also reports that the US military does not expect to launch the kind of strike on Ramadi that it did on Fallujah last year. Ramadi has 400,000 citizens (Fallujah has 200,000), and several major roads run through it. Fallujah was more isolated and easier to surround. The US would like to see Iraqi troops take the lead in any attempt to drive out the insurgents. But that would mean taking troops out of Haditha, another troubled town, leaving it open for further insurgent infiltration. The US military refers to this as the "whack-a-mole" problem.

In one sign that Iraqi troops are starting to play a bigger role in the fight against insurgents, The Associated Press reports that Tuesday an Iraqi antiterrorist combat unit captured key terrorist suspect Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samer al-Battawi. Al Battawi has said he has beheaded hundreds of people, primarily in sectarian fighting. The Iraqi unit also seized "documents, cellphones and computers that contained information on other suspected terrorists and Islamic extremist groups."

Also...
• White House: Haditha findings to be made public (CNN)
• Iraq envoy wants slaying inquiry (Los Angeles Times)
• Gore: Bush is 'renegade rightwing extremist' (Guardian)
• Basra deaths of British troops raise fears over roadside bombs (Guardian)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan .