US' Gates visits Iraq; Gen Casey says extra troops to stay until summer UPDATE

US' Gates visits Iraq; Gen Casey says extra troops to stay until summer UPDATE

	Published : Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:05 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updating with later quotes from US, UK military)

TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFX) - US troop reinforcements will stay in Iraq until at least late summer, outgoing coalition commander General George Casey said today, welcoming the early progress of a new US strategy.

After meeting visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Casey said recent arrests of suspected death squad leaders showed that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was beginning to take the steps he had promised to end the alleged impunity of Shiite militias.

'So far so good, but as I said, we have got a long way to go yet,' Casey told reporters with Gates, who was on his first Iraq visit since this month's unveiling of the US change of policy, at his side.

Casey said it would take until late summer to see results from the reinforcement of US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad.

Only then could decisions be made about how long the 21,500 additional US troops sent to Iraq would stay, he said.

'I believe the projections are late summer,' he said. 'I think it's probably going to be late summer before you get to the point where people in Baghdad feel safe in their neighborhoods.

'The first troops are just arriving now, so we have to wait and see what effect they'll have on the situation before we start thinking about sending troops home again.'

But the US general said there was already evidence that the Iraqi premier was genuine in his determination to crack down on the sectarian bloodletting gripping Iraq, following the arrest of a commander of the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr earlier in the day.

'We have had a series of operations against Al-Qaeda, against Saddamists and against death squads. And we have picked up five or six death squad leaders in the last two or three or four weeks,' Casey said.

'I think it is indicative of the prime minister and the government's commitment to target all those who break the law.'

Maliki committed to allowing US and Iraqi forces to conduct operations anywhere in Baghdad and pursue lawbreakers without political interference as part of the new strategy aimed at pacifying Baghdad.

'So far we are seeing them come through on those commitments. It's too soon to say. It will play out over time,' Casey said.

The new US plan for Iraq has come under fierce criticism even among President George W. Bush's political allies, amid a steep slide in US public support for his handling of the nearly four-year-old war.

The US general said the Iraqi government was also so far keeping to the timetable it had given for the promised deployment to the capital of three extra brigades of government troops.

The US defence secretary, who was on his second visit to Iraq since taking office, held talks with British and Polish as well as US commanders.

In contrast to Washington, London is planning to draw down its 7,000 troops in southern Iraq over the next few months as progress is made in transferring more control over security to Iraqi forces.

The provinces of Dhi-Qar and Al-Muthanna have already been transferred to Iraqi control and British spokesman Major Chris Osmand said Maysan province was also due to be handed over in the next few weeks, leaving only the regional capital of Basra under British responsibility.

'They will take total control at that point, and the British will step back,' he said.

Osmand said a ceasefire arranged by Iraqi politicians has held since November and some 300 British troops in the province had been redeployed to its border with Iran.

Gates has highlighted US concerns about Iranian activities in Iraq during his current tour, which has taken him to Afghanistan, Britain, the Gulf and NATO, as well as Iraq.

Osmand said British forces had found no hard evidence that Iran was moving weapons and bomb-making technology into southern Iraq.

But there were suspicions that the Islamic republic was using 'rogue elements' of Shiite militias in the region to launch attacks on coalition forces.

Osmand said British troops had no problem with militias as such.

'The militias are not a bad thing. We are not taking them on. They are not a problem to us,' he said.

'What is a problem are some of the rogue elements.'

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