Rumsfeld talks strategy in Iraq, sizes up Iraqi security forces

KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 10 (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sized up his commanders' progress in preparing Iraqi security forces for battle against insurgents, the ultimate test of a US strategy to pacify Iraq before the January elections.
US commanders here told him joint US-Iraqi operations are winning the war in this northern oil-producing region, defeating "in detail" rebels who held the city of Samarra since June.
Samarra "now is in a phase of returning to normalcy," Major General John Batiste, commander of the army's 1st Infantry Division told Rumsfeld.
Launched October 1 after a series of insurgent attacks, the Samarra offensive has been held out by Rumsfeld as a model for retaking other insurgent enclaves in the Sunni heartland before January elections.
The secretary discussed the pacification plan earlier in Baghdad with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, US Ambassador John Negroponte and the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey. He ended the daylong visit with dinner with South Korean troops in Irbil.
He told marines at an air base in al-Anbar province, a hotbed of resistance, they can expect increased violence between now and elections in January, but the stakes are high.
"A victory for the extremists would mean Iraq would become a base for training, planning and operations for the kind of people who struck America on September 11th," Rumsfeld said, referring to the 2001 anti-US terror attacks.
The commanders are relying more than ever before on newly trained Iraqi security forces to back coalition forces as they clear urban strongholds of rebels and then hold them after the Americans withdraw.
Casey told reporters in Baghdad that 145,000 Iraqi security forces will be trained and equipped by the end of January.
The bet on Iraqi security forces is a big one because if they fail the United States would come under pressure to send in more US troops.
Neither Rumsfeld nor Casey would rule out that option.
"If I need more troops, as the secretary said, I'll ask for it," Casey told reporters.
In April, Iraqi police and national guard fled or refused to fight when faced with major armed uprisings in Fallujah and in the Shiite south.
But Batiste said that in Samarra the Iraqi security forces performed well, retaking a mosque and a Shiite shrine in the fighting.
They accounted for 40 percent of the combined force, which totalled about 5,000 troops, and included police, national guard and regular army units.
"We brought them together in advance, we rehearsed the plan over and over again. So when we executed it everybody knew what they were doing. We had unity of command, and we had unity of effort," Batiste said.
At the core of the resistance were about 300 dedicated fighters, about 50 foreign fighters from Egypt and Sudan, and an outer fringe of disaffected Iraqis who "wanted to fight."
The US-Iraqi force moved into the city from four sides after first shutting down electrical power and sealing off access to it from the outside.
"We fixed him totally. As a result, he was defeated in detail," Batiste told Rumsfeld, referring to the insurgents as "him."
Since the offensive, a new city coucil has been selected by Iraqi officials, and 13.5 million dollars in reconstruction projects have begun to get people working.
"It has been impressive," said Rumsfeld.
But he asked whether favoring the city with reconstruction projects would be an inducement to insurgencies elsewhere.
"In a case like Samarra, where we've got to get unemployed folks back to work, I think it's important to pile on now because there's a very small window of opportunity," Batiste said.
Commanders of Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk attended the session with Rumsfeld, which was opened to reporters traveling with the secretary. Afterwards, Rumsfeld met Iraqi police and troops.
Colonel Lloyd Miles, a brigade commander, attributed a decline in attacks in the Kirkuk area to closer cooperation with the local security forces.
They recently launched an operation against kidnappers that took 17 suspects into custody and freed three children who had been held for ransom.
"Really, it's only in Anbar province where you have the challenges and intimidation that makes them relatively ineffective," a senior military officer said.
"As everybody has said, it's likely to be a fight to the elections, but it's a fight in which the Iraqis are contributed more and more," the official said.