U.S. general expects fresh fight
BAQUBAH, Iraq – The top U.S. general on the ground in Iraq warned Saturday that a spike in violence was likely in coming months as Iraq’s new government begins its full term in office.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of U.S.-led troops in Iraq, said that despite political progress and the growing competence of Iraqi security forces, troops in Iraq are still fighting a bloody insurgency.
“There’s nothing about this that I would (call) peacekeeping,” he said. “We’re in a fight.”
This month, at least 70 U.S. troops have been killed in that fight, the highest toll in five months. A soldier died Saturday when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad.
“What we’re seeing now, the upsurge in violence, is all about destabilizing the government,” Chiarelli said in an interview. “It’s a strategy to push up violence to take away the focus from what the prime minister is doing.”
Parliament on April 22 endorsed a deal to designate Shiite politician Nouri al-Maliki the prime minister. Al-Maliki has 30 days from the time he was named prime minister to put together a Cabinet, which will be Iraq’s first permanent government since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
In the past, violence has spiked around key political events such as elections.
“I’ll expect the violence to be high in the first months of the new government,” Chiarelli said.
His comments echoed those of President Bush, who in his weekly radio address from Washington on Saturday warned of “more days of sacrifice and struggle.”
Chiarelli spent Saturday in Baqubah, addressing Iraqi and American troops in the provincial capital of Diyala about 35 miles northeast of the capital. In recent weeks, rebels have mounted a series of bold, large-scale attacks to gain control of this ethnically and religiously mixed city.
Despite the need for American backup, Chiarelli said Iraqi soldiers and police officers fought side by side to fend off the rebels and stood their ground.
Traveling from his Baghdad headquarters to Baqubah in a phalanx of Blackhawk and Apache helicopters, Chiarelli was accompanied by several Iraqi generals, including the deputy commander of the Iraqi army, Lt. Gen. Nasier Abadi.
“By this heroic action, you have written a new chapter in the book of major exploits of the new Iraqi army,” Abadi told soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 5th Division of the Iraqi army. “You were able to conquer fear and uncertainty, and demonstrate how the will to win makes a difference in combat, leading to victory and defeat of the terrorists.”
The American casualty count in April, more than twice the previous month, broke a downward trend begun in November. Most U.S. troops were killed in Baghdad and the volatile Anbar province, the western area that is the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency.
On Saturday, authorities in Baghdad recovered five bodies from various areas, and two roadside bombs injured five police officers, according to authorities.
Six bodies were found in Dora, on the southern edge of the capital. All were handcuffed and blindfolded, showing signs of torture.
Near Tall Afar in northwest Iraq, hospital officials reported that an adult and two children had been killed when a mortar round hit their house.