WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The Iraqi government has thus far stayed relatively on schedule in providing the troops it has promised to Baghdad, a top U.S. general said.
Gen. George Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that two of the three promised Iraqi brigade headquarters have been deployed to Baghdad, and four of seven battalions of troops have shown up.
However, those battalions are undermanned by 35 to 45 percent, Casey told the committee.
"They are coming in with a range of 55 to 65 percent strength," Casey said at his nomination hearing to become the chief of staff of the U.S. Army. "We are working with them to increase the strength. But they are delivering so far on what they said they'd do."
Casey said there has been a downward trend in ethno-sectarian violence in the last five or six weeks, which he attributed to the announcement that additional troops would be sent to Baghdad. U.S. President George W. Bush announced the plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq on Jan. 10, but rumors that the U.S. forces would increase have swirled since December.
Casey said U.S. and Iraqi forces have picked up "five or six key leaders of death squads" in recent weeks.
"We are actually seeing some senior leaders move out of Sadr City to safer places. That's good news and bad news," Casey said.
The upside is that it shows they believe the Iraqi government is serious about taking the fight to the militias; the downside is that they can "go to ground" and hide until the surge is over, evading capture to fight for another day.
