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Iraq

U.S. forces in Iraq will be reduced

Citing success, the military will divert about 7,000 troops. But sectarian strife threatens.

By wire services
Published December 24, 2005

BAGHDAD - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced Friday that the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq would be reduced by about 7,000 early next year.

Rumsfeld said the long-anticipated "adjustment" was made possible by political progress demonstrated in the country's heavily attended and largely peaceful elections last week and the development of Iraq's U.S.-trained police and army.

"This is a year of historic accomplishments in Iraq," Rumsfeld said in Baghdad. "We feel very pleased with the progress being made by the Iraqi Security Forces and the increased role they are playing in providing security in Iraq."

But during the news conference conducted inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, where most of the country's government offices are housed, more than 10,000 demonstrators took to the capital's streets over an election they consider a fraud. Smaller protests were also held in Mosul and Tikrit.

"Fraud enhances the occupation and ethnic divisions," one banner said.

Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, which ruled the country before Saddam Hussein was toppled and are believed to comprise the bulk of the insurgency, has recently returned to the political arena after boycotting the country's January elections. Sunnis turned out in force last week, but according to preliminary results, their parties won fewer seats than they expected, an outcome they attribute to foul play by the Shiite Muslim-led government.

About 1,500 complaints have been lodged about the elections, including 40 or so that the Iraqi election commission said are serious enough to change the results in certain areas.

Religious parties based in Iraq's Shiite majority called on Sunni Arabs to accept the election results and consider joining a coalition government after the final results are released in early January.

However, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported on Friday a complication that could lead to further sectarian divisions.

Iraq's Supreme Judicial Court ruled Thursday that some of the most prominent Sunni Muslims who were likely elected to parliament won't be allowed to serve because officials suspect that they were high-ranking members of Hussein's Baath Party.

Adil al-Lami, the chief electoral official, said that he would honor the court's decision and that none of the accused Sunnis would appear on the final list of parliament members.

Among the candidates identified as suspected Baath officials are Adnan al-Janabi, the second-highest ranking member of the constitutional committee and a top candidate on U.S.-backed former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's slate, and Rasem al-Awadi, a National Assembly member also on Allawi's slate. Five members of the Iraqi Accord Front, the principal Sunni electoral slate, also were named.

In Baghdad, Rumsfeld said President Bush had authorized new cuts below the 138,000-soldier level that has prevailed for most of this year.

The troop reduction will be accomplished by diverting two brigades set to deploy to Iraq.

This year's U.S. base force of 138,000 troops was bulked up to about 160,000 in anticipation of intensified violence in advance of the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum and the Dec. 15 election. Those 20,000 extra troops will be leaving in January, officials have said.

The Defense Department announced that the troops affected by the new staffing order would be portions of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kan., which had been scheduled to deploy to Iraq. Some members of that division, however, still will go to Iraq to conduct missions such as training Iraqi security forces. The 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, based in Baumholder, Germany, will remain in Kuwait as a call-forward force instead of moving into Iraq. Officials will determine when that brigade can return home based on the situation developing in Iraq, the military said.

Speaking to reporters after Rumsfeld's remarks, Gen. George Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said that he hoped a further reduction of forces could come as early as next spring.

"In this kind of war that we're fighting, more is not necessarily better," Casey said. "In fact, in Iraq, less coalition at this point in time is better. Less is better because it doesn't feed the notion of occupation" or further deepen the Iraqis' dependence on American firepower.

The U.S. military said two American soldiers were killed Friday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad. It also reported a bomb killed another soldier in the capital Thursday. No other details were released.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A Dutch chemicals merchant was sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling Saddam Hussein's regime the materials used to kill thousands in lethal gas attacks on Kurdish villages in the 1980s.

Frans van Anraat, 63, was not in the courtroom when judges found him guilty of war crimes but acquitted him of genocide charges.

AMMAN, Jordan - Saddam Hussein's chief Iraqi lawyer on Friday echoed charges by the ousted leader that he was beaten and tortured by U.S. troops, saying he had seen the bruises himself.

The United States has denied American guards harmed Hussein. The Iraqi judge who investigated Hussein said that until this week Hussein had never claimed any mistreatment, even when asked directly if he had been abused.

Attorney Khalil Dulaimi, who still regards Hussein as Iraq's president, said the torture was revealed to him during a brief interview with his client during his trial in Baghdad on Wednesday and Thursday.

He did not say where the bruises were on Hussein's body or describe them. He said Hussein is also being tortured psychologically, but he did not explain.

Information from the Associated Press, Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Washington Post was used in this report.

[Last modified December 24, 2005, 01:10:16]