'Uneven' progress in Iraq

2007-09-08 09:25

Washington - US success in quelling violence in Iraq is uneven, and political progress there is not as the he had hoped, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, said in a letter to US forces.

Petraeus, who is due to testify before Congress in Washington next week on the effectiveness of an eight-month-old, 30 000-man "surge" of US troops told US soldiers in Iraq that there has been significant and continuing progress but that the situation is "exceedingly complex."

"My sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum and wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq," Petraeus said in the letter dated September 7 offering a general assessment of the surge.

"The result has been progress in the security arena, although it has, as you know, been uneven."

He cited a significant reduction in the number of attacks across the country, in the last week in August hitting the lowest level since June 2006.

"The progress has not, to be sure, been uniform across Baghdad or across Iraq," he said, mentioning recent huge bombings in Baghdad.

"However, the overall trajectory has been encouraging, especially when compared to the situation at the height of the sectarian violence in late 2006 and early 2007."

But Petraeus was less positive about advances made on the Iraqi political scene.

Iraqi leaders

"One of the justifications for the surge, after all, was that it would help create the space for Iraqi leaders to tackle the tough questions and agree on key pieces of 'national reconciliation' legislation.

"It has not worked out as we had hoped," he said.

In his letter Petraeus did not discuss pulling out any troops from Iraq, but in comments to the Boston Globe published on Friday, he said he will recommend a gradual reduction of US forces beginning next spring in his testimony to Congress next week.

"Based on the progress our forces are achieving, I expect to be able to recommend that some of our forces will be redeployed without replacement," Petraeus told the Globe in an e-mail from Baghdad.

"That will, over time, reduce the total number of troops in Iraq. The process will take time, but we want to be sure to maintain the security gains that coalition and Iraqi forces have worked so hard to achieve," he said.

The force reduction Petraeus forecast will come as the five additional brigades deployed to Iraq as part of President George W Bush's surge strategy end their tours of duty over the spring and summer, and are not replaced, the daily said. A brigade consists of 3 500 to 4 500 soldiers.

"The bottom line is that ... I do not envision that the US would need to send more troops," Petraeus was quoted as saying. "In fact, we are in the process of doing the 'battlefield geometry' to determine the way ahead as the surge of forces inevitably runs its course."

- AFP