More U.S. Troops Headed To Iraq

[David]

AP


The Pentagon is sending elements of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Iraq to bolster security in advance of Iraq's election, scheduled for late January, an Army official said Wednesday.

In addition, at least two Army brigades now operating in northern Iraq will have their tours extended by about two months, until after the election, the official said speaking on condition of anonymity.

The decisions were to be announced later Wednesday. Members of two battalions of the 82nd Airborne, and their families, were notified of the decision Tuesday, the official said. The battalions were given what the Army calls a warning order, alerting them that they will be going.

A battalion generally numbers about 500 to 600 troops.

In other developments:


A militant Islamic group claimed responsibility in a Web posting Wednesday for abducting and killing three Iraqis working for the U.S. Marines. The militant Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed militants manning a checkpoint on the Baghdad-Ramadi road captured the three civilians.


Some U.S. commanders in Iraq may have been alerted in December 2003 ? before the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse allegations surfaced ? that Iraqis in detention were being abused, a senior official said Wednesday. Larry Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, confirmed that a confidential report to the Army's command in Baghdad said a joint CIA-military team hunting for Saddam Hussein and other high-priority intelligence targets had mistreated and possibly physically abused some of their detainees. The findings were first reported in Wednesday's editions of The Washington Post.


Dental records have shown that a mutilated body found in Iraq is not that of kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan, but British officials say they still believe the British-Irish citizen is dead.


A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle Wednesday at an Iraqi checkpoint near Iskandariyah, one of the most turbulent towns of the region. Seven Iraqis were wounded, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said initial reports indicated that one Iraqi passer-by was also killed.


The U.S. military said it has arrested 210 suspected militants in a weeklong crackdown against insurgents in an area south of Baghdad known as the "triangle of death." U.S. commanders want to cut off escape routes for Fallujah fighters and pacify the troubled region ahead of national elections.


U.S. troops detained 17 suspected militants during a series of raids on Tuesday in and around Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.

Military officials have said repeatedly in recent weeks that they were considering whether more American troops would be required to provide sufficient security in advance of the Jan. 30 election.

The moves to be announced Wednesday are in line with expectations ? a combination of holding some troops in Iraq longer than scheduled and sending some fresh forces from the United States.

The United States now has about 138,000 troops in Iraq. It is in the midst of swapping out units that have been there for a full year with fresh forces, including the 3rd Infantry Division, which helped spearhead the original invasion and toppling of Baghdad in the spring of 2003.

Officials have said they were considering sending some elements of the 3rd Infantry to Iraq earlier than scheduled, as part of a force-bolstering plan. It was not clear Wednesday whether that decision had been made, but some officials suggested it was unlikely.

Security problems are most severe in the so-called Sunni Triangle area north and west of Baghdad, as well as in the capital itself. Recently there also has been trouble in the northern city of Mosul.

U.S. soldiers traveling through Mosul on a mission to discuss the January election with Iraqis came under fire Wednesday when they stopped at a gasoline station, witnesses said. One U.S. soldier was wounded in the ensuing gunbattle.

On Baghdad's dangerous airport highway, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden vehicle near two SUVs, wounding three civilians, according to police. One of the SUVs was left lying overturned in the road after the blast, which hit the same spot on the highway where a suicide bomber rammed a U.S. military convoy a day earlier, wounding several soldiers.

The persistent violence has raised fears that voting will be impossible in some areas, and a major Sunni group has called for a boycott of the election to protest the U.S.-Iraqi offensive on Fallujah last month.

Several key Sunni politicians have called for postponing the ballot for up to six months to buy time to resolve the security crisis and persuade Sunni clerics to drop their boycott call.

But Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer, who wields considerable influence among Sunni tribal figures, especially in the north of the country, told reporters in Baghdad that he opposed any delay.

"I personally think that there is a legal and a moral obligation to hold elections on the set date," he said. "Legally and morally, we have to abide by the date set for the elections in the country's administrative law" which mandates a ballot by the end of January.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, meanwhile, met Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders in neighboring Jordan, trying to drum up support for the election.

Asked about Allawi's visit to Jordan, al-Yawer said "the government wants to encourage some groups of brothers who feel that they want to oppose," the current leadership to join the political process.

Among those with whom Allawi met in Jordan were Majid al-Suleiman, an influential member of the Sunni Duleim tribe of central Iraq, said Allawi's spokesman Thaer al-Naqib.

Also attending were tribal leaders from Ramadi and Fallujah, two Sunni towns west of Baghdad that have been major insurgent strongholds, according to Emad Shabib, who was at the meeting.

Allawi "outlined ... his vision for the future, the reform process and urged everyone to participate in the national Iraqi political process," said Shabib, an executive of the Iraqi National Accord, which Allawi led while in exile.

[colmurph]

It's my son's unit that is going. Looks like a 90 day deployment just to provide security for the elections. He's going to the 5th SFG as Group Chaplain on his next PCS.