thedrifter
04-19-07, 04:38 PM
Gates makes surprise visit to Iraq
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 19, 2007
FALLUJA, Iraq: The U.S. defense secretary, Robert Gates, made a surprise visit to Iraq on Thursday to warn Iraqi leaders that the U.S. commitment to a military buildup there was not open-ended.
Gates said the political tumult in Washington over financing the military presence in Iraq showed that both the American public and the Bush administration were running out of patience with the war.
"I'm sympathetic with some of the challenges that they face," Gates said of the Iraqis during his visit. But, he said, "the clock is ticking."
"Frankly," he added, "I would like to see faster progress."
He said that the Iraqis needed to push through legislation on political reconciliation and sharing oil revenues to create an environment in which violence could be reduced.
Underscoring the urgency in controlling the violence, the police said a suicide car bomber had rammed into a fuel truck in central Baghdad only hours before Gates's arrival, killing at least a dozen people. That attack came a day after one of the bloodiest days in Baghdad since the U.S. troop increase began nine weeks ago, with four strikes killing more than 230 people.
Meanwhile, Iraqi insurgents connected with Al Qaeda issued a video Thursday purporting to show the killing of 20 kidnapped Iraqi police and soldiers, shot in the head execution-style as they knelt in a row.
In the insurgents' video, a masked gunman was shown walking down the row of captives, who were blindfolded with hands bound behind their backs outdoors in a clearing near trees. He shot them one by one, sending each tumbling forward as three other masked militants stood nearby, holding a black banner of the Islamic State of Iraq.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a coalition of Sunni insurgents including Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed Saturday to have abducted the 20 and threatened to kill them after 48 hours unless the government freed female prisoners and handed over police officers accused of rapes in the northern town of Tal Afar. The authenticity of the six-minute video, which was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be independently confirmed, and the Iraqi government has denied that 20 policemen and soldiers had been kidnapped.
Also Thursday, the British Defense Ministry said two British soldiers had been killed and three wounded Thursday in an explosion in southeastern Iraq. The soldiers were on a vehicle patrol when the blast occurred at 11:20 a.m. Their names and other details were not immediately released. The deaths brought to 144 the number of British soldiers killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Ten have been killed so far in April.
Gates landed in Baghdad, then flew by helicopter to Camp Falluja for a briefing by General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and General Peter Pace, the Joint Chiefs chairman.
Falluja, where the U.S. Marines make up the bulk of the U.S. force, is a stronghold for Sunni insurgents. But commanders there have been saying violence has dipped and they are optimistic about progress in western Iraq.
Gates, who stopped in Iraq on a trip through the Middle East, also planned to meet with Iraqi political leaders. His visit, the third to Iraq since taking over as defense secretary in December, came a day after President George W. Bush met with congressional leaders to discuss the impasse over legislation to provide funds for the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gates said the White House had not asked him whether there was a compromise on a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq that the U.S. military could accept.
Three of the five brigades ordered into Iraq by Bush to stem Baghdad violence have arrived, bringing the U.S. forces in the country to 146,000. Officials want the rest in place by June, for a total of 160,000.
Soon after that they plan to assess how much longer the higher troop level - about 30,000 more than before the buildup - will be needed.Officials have struggled to find troops from within the stretched U.S. military to sustain the increase. Gates last week took the difficult step of lengthening tours of duty to the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 months from a year.
During an hourlong meeting Wednesday at the White House, the president told lawmakers directly he would not sign any bill that includes a timetable for troop withdrawal, and they made it clear Congress will send him one anyway.
"We believe he must search his soul, his conscience and find out what is the right thing for the American people," the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, told reporters after the session. "I believe signing this bill will do that."
But a White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said, "It appears that they are determined to send a bill to the president that he won't accept. They fundamentally disagree."
Democrats hope to complete work on a House-Senate compromise in time to send it to the White House by the end of next week, with Bush's veto a certainty.
Given the narrow Democratic majority in the Senate, it appears unlikely the compromise will include a mandatory date for a complete withdrawal.
In any event, after an expected presidential veto attention would turn quickly to a new bill with provisions acceptable to the president.
The Pentagon says it has enough money to pay for the Iraq war through June, despite warnings from the White House that troops are being harmed by Congress's failure to quickly deliver more funds.
An insurgent coalition announced a "cabinet" for its Islamic state in Iraq in a Web video posted Thursday, naming the head of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia as "minister of war," The Associated Press reported from Cairo.
The video was issued by the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgent groups including Al Qaeda. A man identified as a spokesman for the group appeared, with his face obscured, and said: "It is the duty at our present stage to form this cabinet, the first Islamic cabinet, which has faith in God." He then listed a 10-member "cabinet," including Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as "war minister." Muhajer was announced as the successor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006.
Ellie
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 19, 2007
FALLUJA, Iraq: The U.S. defense secretary, Robert Gates, made a surprise visit to Iraq on Thursday to warn Iraqi leaders that the U.S. commitment to a military buildup there was not open-ended.
Gates said the political tumult in Washington over financing the military presence in Iraq showed that both the American public and the Bush administration were running out of patience with the war.
"I'm sympathetic with some of the challenges that they face," Gates said of the Iraqis during his visit. But, he said, "the clock is ticking."
"Frankly," he added, "I would like to see faster progress."
He said that the Iraqis needed to push through legislation on political reconciliation and sharing oil revenues to create an environment in which violence could be reduced.
Underscoring the urgency in controlling the violence, the police said a suicide car bomber had rammed into a fuel truck in central Baghdad only hours before Gates's arrival, killing at least a dozen people. That attack came a day after one of the bloodiest days in Baghdad since the U.S. troop increase began nine weeks ago, with four strikes killing more than 230 people.
Meanwhile, Iraqi insurgents connected with Al Qaeda issued a video Thursday purporting to show the killing of 20 kidnapped Iraqi police and soldiers, shot in the head execution-style as they knelt in a row.
In the insurgents' video, a masked gunman was shown walking down the row of captives, who were blindfolded with hands bound behind their backs outdoors in a clearing near trees. He shot them one by one, sending each tumbling forward as three other masked militants stood nearby, holding a black banner of the Islamic State of Iraq.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a coalition of Sunni insurgents including Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed Saturday to have abducted the 20 and threatened to kill them after 48 hours unless the government freed female prisoners and handed over police officers accused of rapes in the northern town of Tal Afar. The authenticity of the six-minute video, which was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be independently confirmed, and the Iraqi government has denied that 20 policemen and soldiers had been kidnapped.
Also Thursday, the British Defense Ministry said two British soldiers had been killed and three wounded Thursday in an explosion in southeastern Iraq. The soldiers were on a vehicle patrol when the blast occurred at 11:20 a.m. Their names and other details were not immediately released. The deaths brought to 144 the number of British soldiers killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Ten have been killed so far in April.
Gates landed in Baghdad, then flew by helicopter to Camp Falluja for a briefing by General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and General Peter Pace, the Joint Chiefs chairman.
Falluja, where the U.S. Marines make up the bulk of the U.S. force, is a stronghold for Sunni insurgents. But commanders there have been saying violence has dipped and they are optimistic about progress in western Iraq.
Gates, who stopped in Iraq on a trip through the Middle East, also planned to meet with Iraqi political leaders. His visit, the third to Iraq since taking over as defense secretary in December, came a day after President George W. Bush met with congressional leaders to discuss the impasse over legislation to provide funds for the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gates said the White House had not asked him whether there was a compromise on a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq that the U.S. military could accept.
Three of the five brigades ordered into Iraq by Bush to stem Baghdad violence have arrived, bringing the U.S. forces in the country to 146,000. Officials want the rest in place by June, for a total of 160,000.
Soon after that they plan to assess how much longer the higher troop level - about 30,000 more than before the buildup - will be needed.Officials have struggled to find troops from within the stretched U.S. military to sustain the increase. Gates last week took the difficult step of lengthening tours of duty to the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 months from a year.
During an hourlong meeting Wednesday at the White House, the president told lawmakers directly he would not sign any bill that includes a timetable for troop withdrawal, and they made it clear Congress will send him one anyway.
"We believe he must search his soul, his conscience and find out what is the right thing for the American people," the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, told reporters after the session. "I believe signing this bill will do that."
But a White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said, "It appears that they are determined to send a bill to the president that he won't accept. They fundamentally disagree."
Democrats hope to complete work on a House-Senate compromise in time to send it to the White House by the end of next week, with Bush's veto a certainty.
Given the narrow Democratic majority in the Senate, it appears unlikely the compromise will include a mandatory date for a complete withdrawal.
In any event, after an expected presidential veto attention would turn quickly to a new bill with provisions acceptable to the president.
The Pentagon says it has enough money to pay for the Iraq war through June, despite warnings from the White House that troops are being harmed by Congress's failure to quickly deliver more funds.
An insurgent coalition announced a "cabinet" for its Islamic state in Iraq in a Web video posted Thursday, naming the head of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia as "minister of war," The Associated Press reported from Cairo.
The video was issued by the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgent groups including Al Qaeda. A man identified as a spokesman for the group appeared, with his face obscured, and said: "It is the duty at our present stage to form this cabinet, the first Islamic cabinet, which has faith in God." He then listed a 10-member "cabinet," including Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as "war minister." Muhajer was announced as the successor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006.
Ellie