A new intelligence report released on Thursday showed that the
Bush administration's "surge" strategy has made progress in Iraq
but the US military still faces "very tough challenges ahead," the
White House said.
US soldiers are seen at
sunset standing at a hill overlooking the Iraqi northern city of
Kirkuk. A new intelligence report released on August 23, 2007,
showed that the Bush administration's "surge" strategy has made
progress in Iraq but the US military still faces "very tough
challenges ahead."
"The National Intelligence Estimate's updated judgments show
that our strategy has improved the security environment in Iraq but
that we still face very tough challenges ahead," spokesman Gordon
Johndroe said in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush
was vacationing.
The intelligence estimate was released by the office of the
Director of National Intelligence on Thursday.
Bush was briefed on the classified version on Monday morning,
Johndroe said.
Johndroe said that the intelligence estimate in February
concluded that conditions in Iraq were worsening, the new estimate
showed that the military's counterinsurgency strategy has begun to
slow the rapidly increasing violence and patterns of the violence
in Iraq.
A bugler plays Taps
during the funeral at Arlington National Cemetery 16 Aug of a US
soldier killed in Iraq.
Bush ordered some 30,000 additional US troops to Iraq early this
year to help quell violence in Iraq. The military buildup, known as
"surge," became "fully operational since mid-summer," he said.
The change was a necessary precondition to the stability and
increased political reconciliation in Iraq, he said.
Judgments in the intelligence report confirmed that Iraq's
security forces are improving their performance, and that bottom-up
political engagement and security initiatives have made a
difference and offer the best prospect for improved security over
the next six to 12 months, he said.
But the report also concluded that the Iraqi security forces
"have not improved enough to conduct major operations independent
of the coalition on a sustained basis in multiple locations," said
Johndroe.
The US intelligence community concluded that al Qaida in Iraq
remained resilient, but US and Iraqi forces "have reduced al Qaida
in Iraq's capabilities, restricted its freedom of movement, and
denied its grassroots support in some areas," he said.
The report also confirmed that Iran and Syria were still
supporting and arming militant groups inside Iraq, he said.
US soldiers from 3-509
Para-Infantry Regiment stand guard over an Iraqi family as fellow
soldiers search the premises during Operation Marne Husky along the
Tigris River south of Baghdad.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2007)
