Pentagon OKs addition of 2,200 MPs for Baghdad

AP
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has approved a request by the new U.S. commander in Iraq for an extra 2,200 Military Police personnel to help deal with an anticipated increase in detainees during the Baghdad security crackdown, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Wednesday.

Gates said the request is in addition to the 21,500 combat troops that President Bush is sending for the crackdown, along with 2,400 support troops.

“That’s a new requirement by a new commander,” Gates said of the request for more MPs by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who assumed command in Baghdad last month. He added that the Pentagon was still considering other troop requests.

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the dayto- day commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, has recommended that the higher troop level be maintained until next February, the New York Times reported on its Web site Wednesday night. Odierno said the extra troops are needed to support a sustained effort to win over the Iraqi populace.

Odierno made the recommendation to Petraeus, but Petraeus has not yet acted on it, the report said.

House Democratic leaders intend to propose legislation that would require withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of 2008, and even earlier if the Iraqi government fails to meet security and other goals, Democratic officials said.

The conditions would be added to legislation that would provide nearly $100 billion the Bush administration has requested for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the officials said. The legislation is expected on the floor of the House later this month.

In Iraq, a suicide attacker blew himself up in a cafe northeast of the capital Wednesday, killing 30 people as a wave of violence left 90 dead across the country.

The bloodshed persisted as Iraqi security forces struggled to protect more than a million Shiite pilgrims streaming toward the holy city of Karbala for annual religious rituals that begin Friday. The pilgrims are facing a string of attacks along the way that have claimed at least 174 lives in two days.

The victims included 22 people — 12 police commandos and 10 civilians — who died Wednesday in a car bombing at a checkpoint in southern Baghdad set up to protect pilgrims, the U.S. military said.

Just north of Baghdad, a powerful bomb killed three American soldiers trying to clear explosives from a major highway, the U.S. military said, raising the U.S. toll to 3,188 since the war started in March 2003.

U.S. troops have stepped up efforts to clear and secure major highways around the capital as part of the Baghdad security crackdown, which began last month.

But the operation has so far failed to intimidate Sunni insurgents, who have retaliated with attacks outside the city — including those against Shiite pilgrims.

In northern Iraq, insurgents raided a prison near Mosul on Tuesday and freed a nephew of Saddam Hussein whose father was recently executed, a member of the Ninewa provincial council said Wednesday.

Hisham al-Hendawi said Mohammed Barzan, son of Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam’s intelligence chief, who was decapitated in a botched hanging Jan. 15, was among 140 prisoners who escaped when gunmen overwhelmed guards at the Badoosh prison. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the raid.