US troop 'surge' to stay in Iraq at least until August

WASHINGTON - Some 30,000 additional US troops sent as reinforcements to Iraq will remain in the war-torn country until at least the end of August, a US Defense Department spokesman said Monday.
The Pentagon has decided to deploy 7,000 troops to replace units on their way out of Iraq, a move that will allow the reinforcements to remain in Iraq until at least late August, spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
"I am announcing right now additional major units that are scheduled to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom," Whitman said, specifying that that corresponded to 7,000 troops.
"The level of effort that the United States military is maintaining in Iraq is a build-up to 20 combat brigades.
"These combat brigades with these additional troop rotations ... will permit the surge to continue at that level through ... August 2007."
President George W. Bush announced the troop "surge" in January in a new security effort to bring down sectarian violence in Baghdad and the restive Al-Anbar province.
But his plan has proved unpopular, and he is locked in a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Congress over an emergency funding budget for the war, with US lawmakers seeking to tie the money to a withdrawal from Iraq.
US military officials maintain that execution-style murders have dropped significantly in Baghdad since the security crackdown began.
US White House hopeful and Republican Senator John McCain boasted to a group of reporters on Sunday during a visit to Iraq about "encouraging signs" on the streets of Baghdad where he and three colleagues walked and shopped.
McCain said the latest "surge" strategy was making progress in quelling the bloodshed, citing what he called "reason for cautious, very cautious optimism."
But before the congressmen's declarations, an Iraqi security official highlighted the brutal reality in the country.
Citing government figures, he told AFP that the monthly death toll of Iraqis rose 15 percent in March, the first full month in which the Baghdad security plan has been operational.
Some 3,250 US troops have also died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
March was one of the deadliest months for the US military with 87 personnel killed, almost double the Iraqi armed forces' losses of 44.

04/02/2007 15:35 GMT