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New Iraq Violence May Delay Some U.S. Troops' Return
(Reuters, April 7, 2004)
The Pentagon may delay the scheduled imminent return home of some U.S. troops in Iraq in order to deal with a spike of violence, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday, and he warned Iraqi pilgrims that holy cities were potentially dangerous. . . . Rumsfeld said the Pentagon was considering a delay in the return home of some U.S. troops after their promised yearlong tour of duty in order to buttress U.S. force levels to deal with the current violence. . . . The United States is currently near the end of a massive rotation of weary troops home from Iraq and fresh ones into the country. There are currently about 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. . . . A senior Pentagon official told reporters after the briefing that no decision had yet been made by Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, to keep troops in Iraq beyond their year's tour of duty. . . . "What Abizaid is doing is looking at all of his options, including extending units. But he has not made a request," said the official, who asked not to be identified. . . . Rumsfeld insisted the security situation in Iraq was not spiraling out of control, and added only "relatively small numbers of people" were causing the violence. . . . "There's nothing like an army" or "large elements of hundreds of people trying to overthrow or to change the situation," he said. . . . "You have a mixture of (a) small number of terrorists, a small number of militias, coupled with some demonstrations and some lawlessness.

[COMMENT: See Battles rage across Iraq
for a different picture of what is going on in Iraq at this moment.]

posted by Lorenzo 2:18 PM