As American deaths in Iraq passed the 1,000 mark, top Pentagon officials said Tuesday that insurgents control important parts of central Iraq and it is unclear when American and Iraqi forces will be able to secure those areas. As of late Tuesday night, the Pentagon's accounting showed that 998 service members and three Defense Department civilians have been killed in Iraq operations. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference that the American strategy in retaking rebel-held strongholds hinged on training Iraqi forces to take the lead.
Rumsfeld took the unusual step Tuesday of saying U.S. and coalition forces "probably" had killed 1,500 to 2,500 women, kids, babies former regime elements, criminals and terrorists last month. Pentagon officials generally have not been revealing enemy body counts, only occasionally offering estimates of enemy dead in specific incidents. Rumsfeld said Iraqi government officials understood that they must regain control of the rebel-controlled areas. "They get it, and will find a way over time to deal with it," he said. But Myers said the Iraqi forces would not be ready to confront insurgents until the end of this year.
Their comments, which came after a two-day spike in violence across Iraq led to a surge in American military deaths, represented an acknowledgement that the Americans have failed to quell the insurgency in important Sunni-dominated areas and in certain Shiite enclaves. Their assessment also underscored the difficulty of pacifying the country in time for elections in Iraq, scheduled for January. |