[NYTr] 'Surge' hit by fresh al-Qa'ida threats

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Independent - Sep 16, 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2966962.ece


'Surge' hit by fresh al-Qa'ida threats

By Raymond Whitaker

President George Bush, reinforcing the message that the US troops
"surge" is making progress, said yesterday that more American forces
would start moving into a support role by the end of the year. In
December, Mr Bush said in his weekly radio address, the US would begin
a new military phase, in which "our troops will shift over time from
leading operations to partnering with Iraqi forces, and eventually to
over-watching those forces."

Following last week's report by General David Petraeus, the supreme US
commander in Iraq, the Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, suggested troop
levels could fall as low as 100,000 by the end of 2008.

But the surge suffered a blow last week when Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, a
Sunni tribal chief who had led an uprising against al-Qa'ida in Anbar
province, was killed by a bomb. Yesterday al-Qa'ida threatened to name
and kill tribal leaders who worked with the US or Iraqi security forces.

Meanwhile, the government of Nouri al-Maliki was weakened by the
departure of 30 MPs loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who
pulled his bloc's six ministers out of the cabinet in April. The main
Sunni grouping also quit the cabinet last month. Mr Maliki now has the
support of only half the 275 MPs.