WORLD / Middle East
General: Iraqi forces may be too weak
(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-25 08:34
BAQOUBA, Iraq - The US commander of a new offensive north of Baghdad,
reclaiming insurgent territory day by day, said Sunday his Iraqi partners
may be too weak to hold onto the gains. The Iraqi military does not even
have enough ammunition, said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek: "They're not quite
up to the job yet."
US Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Commanding General, 3rd Infantry Division and
Multi-National Division-Center, briefs the media during a a press
conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday,
June 24, 2007. [AP]
His counterpart south of Baghdad seemed to agree, saying US troops are
too few to garrison the districts newly rid of insurgents. "It can't be
coalition (US) forces. We have what we have. There's got to be more Iraqi
security forces," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch.
The two commanders spoke after a deadly day for the US military in Iraq.
At least 12 soldiers were killed on Saturday from roadside bombings and
other causes, leaving at least 31 dead for the week.
In central Baghdad, meanwhile, the Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday
sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and two others to
death for their roles in the bloody suppression of Iraq's restive Kurdish
minority during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, a campaign prosecutors said
left 180,000 dead.
Al-Majid, a cousin of executed former president Saddam Hussein and a
one-time Baath Party leader in the north, was convicted of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering army and security
services to use chemical weapons in the offensive against the
independence-minded Kurds of northern Iraq, viewed by Saddam as traitors
and Iranian allies.
Ex-defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai and Hussein Rashid
Mohammed, a former deputy operations director for the Iraqi military,
also were sentenced to hang for the anti-Kurdish atrocities. Two others,
former intelligence officials under Saddam, were sentenced to life in
prison, and the charges against a former northern governor were dismissed.
In the US offensive dubbed Operation Arrowhead Ripper, some 10,000
American troops were in their sixth day of combat to drive Sunni al-Qaida
militants from their stronghold in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Between 60 and 100 suspected al-Qaida fighters and one US soldier have
been killed so far in the fighting in western Baqouba, said Bednarek, the
25th Infantry Division's deputy commander for operations. About 60
insurgents were detained, he said.
He estimated between 50 and 100 insurgents were inside a US security
cordon in the city. "We're closing the noose," Bednarek told The
Associated Press. "It's the hardcore fighters left - guys who will die
for their cause."
He said US forces now control about 60 percent of the city's west side,
but "the challenge now is, how do you hold onto the terrain you've
cleared? You have to do that shoulder-to-shoulder with Iraqi security
forces. And they're not quite up to the job yet."
Across Diyala province, where Baqouba is the capital, Iraqi troops are
short on uniforms, weapons, ammunition, trucks and radios, he said.
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