US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that
political reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites is as important
as the military effort in establishing security in Iraq, where
thousands more US troops have been summoned to Baghdad to quell an
upsurge in violence.
The US may have to send still more troops to the capital city,
said the top US general in the country, while Rumsfeld said it was
too early to estimate when overall levels of US forces in Iraq
might begin to fall.
Gen. George Casey, the senior US commander, said al-Qaida has
increased its killings in Baghdad to show it remains a force to be
reckoned with after the June 7 killing of its leader in Iraq, Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi.
In response to the al-Qaida attacks, "what we are seeing now as
a counter to that is death squads, primarily from Shiite extremist
groups that are retaliating against civilians," Casey said at a
news conference with Rumsfeld. "So you have both sides now
attacking civilians, and that is what has caused the recent spike
in violence here in Baghdad."
Casey said he was consulting with the Iraqi government on how to
counteract the violence. Asked whether that might include putting
more US troops in the Baghdad area, Casey replied, "It may,
yes."
"We'll make sure there are adequate forces available for the
Iraqis to succeed in Baghdad," he added. Rumsfeld said earlier
Wednesday that the number of Iraqi and US troops in Baghdad had
recently grown from 40,000 to about 55,000.
Overall, there are about 129,000 US troops in Iraq.
Rumsfeld said US forces remain committed to helping stabilize
the country, but he stressed that the key concern now is political
rather than military.
"It's as much a political task as anything," he told reporters
who were accompanying him on his 12th visit to Iraq since the March
2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Arab
powerbase. "They're going to have to engage in a reconciliation
process" between Sunnis and Shiites, including the Shiite militias
that are engaging in acts of intimidation and violence in the
Baghdad area, Rumsfeld said.
In the latest violence Wednesday, Iraqi authorities said gunmen
ambushed a bus station in a town northeast of Baghdad, in a
province where sectarian tensions run high, kidnapping two dozen
people and killing all but four of them.
Rumsfeld met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and members of
his Cabinet, who are under growing pressure to show better results
from a month-long crackdown on violence in the capital. Al-Maliki
was scheduled to appear at a news conference with Rumsfeld, but
Defense Minister Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim al-Mifarji attended in
his place.
Rumsfeld said earlier Wednesday that the Iraqi government is not
yet ready to decide on security issues that will determine the pace
of US troop reductions this year.
Speaking to reporters on a flight from southern Afghanistan to
an air base at Balad, Iraq, Rumsfeld said the Iraqis are embarked
"on a comprehensive review" of their security requirements.
Asked how long that might take, he said, "I don't talk
deadlines."
US officials have expressed hope that US troop strength could be
reduced to 100,000 by the end of the year, with further cuts in
2007. Rumsfeld's remarks suggested that the timing and the scope of
troop cuts were still in doubt.
Rumsfeld also indicated on his flight to Iraq that he did not
expect any change for now in the legal arrangement under which
American troops fighting in Iraq are immune from domestic laws.
Some Iraqi leaders have questioned that immunity in light of a
recent string of allegations of murder and other atrocities by US
troops against Iraqi civilians.
He said the allegations, "It's being handled as it should
be."
He indicated no heightened level of concern about the conduct of
US troops and said he did not intend to raise the matter in his
talks Wednesday with top commanders.
Rumsfeld held a town hall style meeting with troops at the air
base at Balad, a major logistics hub for the distribution of
supplies to troops throughout Iraq. He offered his audience of
several hundred troops a definition of "what victory means."
"First and foremost it means helping the Iraqi people take the
fight to the enemy," he said. He described the enemy in Iraq as
"persistent and ruthless," even after a series of tactical defeats
and the loss of al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader who was killed in
a US airstrike in early June.
"These enemies are not going to quit," he said.
(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies July 13, 2006)
