US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld yesterday announced an escalation of planned US troop levels in Iraq by 20,000, to be achieved by delaying the scheduled return home of that number of soldiers by 90 to 120 days. Conor O'Clery North America Editor in New York reports
"The country is at war and we need to do what is necessary to succeed," Mr Rumsfeld said, acknowledging that the deadliest month for US troops had forced the Pentagon to break its pledge to troops that they would not have to serve more than a year in Iraq.
The US has about 137,000 troops in Iraq, many overlapping in a massive rotation. The planned level had been 115,000 by May, Mr Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon, but Gen John Abizaid, the lead US commander in Iraq, wanted more troops to cope with the biggest upsurge in fighting since Saddam Hussein's fall.
Some 6,000 of the 20,000 troops required to stay beyond one year are reserve and National Guard soldiers, normally required to serve only six months every three years, and the extensive use of the "summer soldiers" is already highly unpopular with many American families.
Pressed on whether the 90 day period would be extended if fighting continued, Mr Rumsfeld said angrily, "You could put it that way if you want to cause people concern." Mr Rumsfeld reacted with fury to a report on Al Jazeera television that US troops had killed hundreds of civilians in Falluja in the last week.
"What Al Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable," he fumed. "Our forces do not go around killing hundreds of civilians. It's outrageous."
However asked if he knew how many civilians were killed he snapped: "Of course not, we're not in the city." Earlier Mr Rumsfeld claimed the situation in Falluja was "contained" by US Marines.
Mr Rumsfeld also acknowledged for the first time that the situation in Iraq was different than he would have envisioned at the start of the war.
"I certainly would not have estimated that we would not have had lost the number we have had lost," he said. "It is a tough road, a bumpy road and I'll be honest, an uncertain road."
He said: "A small band of terrorists are not going to be permitted to determine the fate of the 25 million Iraqi people."
Mr Rumsfeld accused "terrorists and the leftovers of Saddam Hussein's regime" of trying to break the will of the American people and foment civil war among Iraqis but "their strategy is failing." Gen Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "Terrorists are scared stiff that the Iraqi people have the promise to live in freedom." That was causing "these thugs to attack more in a frenzy because they do not want this to succeed."
Mr Rumsfeld also said that the bid to foment a popular uprising by radical cleric Moqtada Sadr "is failing". An Iranian envoy is to head to Najaf today to try to resolve the US stand-off with the radical Shia cleric in the holy city.
It was an intervention by a nation Washington has tried to keep out of Iraqi affairs and a sign of the eagerness to avert a US attack on the southern Iraqi city. Hours after the announcement, gunmen killed a high-ranking diplomat from the Iranian embassy in Baghdad. It was unclear whether the killing was linked to the mediation effort. First Secretary Mr Khalil Naimi was shot in his car near the embassy.
At about the same time three Japanese civilians, who had been kidnapped at the weekend and sentenced to death if Tokyo did not withdraw from the US-led coalition, were freed in the Iraqi capital. But it was feared that two Japanese journalists had been kidnapped.
The wave of kidnappings has sent a chill through the foreign community, including aid workers, journalists, and private contractors. Many have chosen to leave the country. The identity of the kidnappers - apparently a variety of small groups - has been unclear. (Additional reporting: Reuters)