WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (AFP) - The US military has doubled the number of helicopters and added an extra brigade to its forces in a troubled area of north-central Iraq to keep the pressure on insurgents ahead of January 30 elections, a top general said Thursday.
Major General John Batiste predicted that the elections will be held successfully in all four provinces where his forces operate -- Salahuddin, Diyala, Tamim and Kurdish Sulaimaniyah -- but acknowledged difficulties with security in two key cities: Samarra and Bayji.
"We will succeed in all four of our provinces," he told reporters in a video teleconference from Iraq. "In Samarra and Bayji, we are still working through some problems."
Salahuddin is one of four provinces that Lieutenant General Thomas Metz, the number-two US commander in Iraq, said last week were not yet secure enough to hold elections.
Batiste said the 43,000 Iraqi security forces in his area will be directly responsible for security at polling stations but US quick-reaction forces will be ready "to stomp on the insurgent when he raises his ugly head."
"My 25,000 soldiers -- and by the way, that includes an extra brigade and twice the helicopters -- will be in full support," he said.
"We will be working with our Iraqi security force partners to make sure what they're doing makes sense, to make sure that if they don't, we're there to mentor and advise," he said.
Batiste said security plans have been closely coordinated and rehearsed with Iraqi authorities.
But the heart of the US strategy has been to bear down on the insurgents with raids and attacks, he said, adding that several operations were underway as he spoke.
"There will be more operations tomorrow, relentless operations chasing down the insurgent, taking away his initiative and disrupting what he's trying to do," he said. "That'll go on continuously up through, to and after the elections."
Insurgents have responded with attacks on Iraqi security forces, including suicide car bombings that killed 21 soldiers January 3 and six police January 11.
Batiste said there were about 24 attacks in his area on Wednesday, about a quarter of them aimed at Iraqi security forces.
"I expect the insurgency to continue with the intimidation in small cells," he said.
"He is going to intimidate the weak. He's going to go after the lamb. He will go after the Iraqi security forces when he can find them in small numbers, because he is beginning to fear the Iraqi security forces. They'll attack us from a distance."
Samarra, one of the trouble spots singled out by Batiste, was retaken from insurgents last year, but coalition forces are still training a new Iraqi police force for the city. In the meantime, it has been secured with four Iraqi police and army battalions and two companies of US troops.
"We do all of this to ensure that that city is secure and that the insurgency is not allowed to regain a foothold. And the insurgency, let there be no doubt, is attempting to do that. But they will not be successful," Batiste said.
Bayji is another area of concern because it is a crossroads for insurgents heading from Mosul to Baghdad, and from Fallujah to Kirkuk in the north.
"We are still in the process of developing and setting the conditions for successful elections in Bayji," he said.

01/13/2005 16:55 GMT - AFP