Bush faces Democratic opposition to troop boost
Source: Reuters
(Refile to fix typo in paragraph 1) (Recasts with Congress, official on Bush plan) By Kristin Roberts and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Democratic senators moved on Tuesday to resist what they called an "escalation" in the Iraq war as President George W. Bush finalized plans to send an extra 20,000 troops to salvage the U.S. mission there. A day ahead of a televised address in which Bush will outline his new war strategy, a defense official said the president planned to call for an increase of more than 20,000 troops, with most going to violence-plagued Baghdad. Iraqi and U.S. forces killed 50 people in a central Baghdad district they described as riddled with "terrorist hideouts," Iraq's government said on Tuesday, bringing the number of people killed since Saturday to at least 130 by Iraqi official estimates. Iraq's government said it welcomed the troop increase, which U.S. officials say comes in exchange for pledges by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to clamp down on sectarian violence. But Democratic leaders, whose party won control of Congress last year partly on Americans' disillusionment with the war, said they were working on legislation that would reject the troop increase and were confident of winning over some Republicans. "We believe that there are a number of Republicans who will join with us to say no to escalation," top Senate Democrat Harry Reid said, adding that at least nine of 49 Republicans in the 100-lawmaker chamber opposed a troop increase. "I really believe that if we can come up up with a bipartisan approach to this escalation it will do more to change the direction of the war in Iraq than any other thing we could do," Reid said. Reid said he was examining proposals by several senators -- including one that Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy made Tuesday to block a boost in troops -- before deciding what to bring to the Senate floor, possibly as early as next week. Congress in October 2002 passed a resolution authorizing the Iraq war. Since then the war has taken the lives of more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers. The defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the latest draft of Bush's plan calls for responsibility for security for all the country's provinces to be turned over to Iraqi forces by November. It also foresees five extra U.S. brigades in Baghdad. A U.S. Army brigade typically contains around 4,000 soldiers. Anbar province, a hotbed of Sunni insurgents and Islamist militants currently patrolled by Marines, would get 4,000 extra U.S. troops under the plan, the official said. BAGHDAD BATTLE Details of the battle on Tuesday around Baghdad's Haifa Street remained sketchy and the U.S. military declined to give a casualty figure. It said soldiers came under rocket and gunfire early Tuesday, the fourth day of fighting in the area. "There are many terrorist hide-outs in Haifa Street," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told a news conference, adding that some foreign Arab suspects had been detained. Though not clearly related, the violence has followed an announcement by Maliki four days ago of a crackdown on militants in the capital. Responding to critics who say he does not have the will to force an end to sectarian violence, Maliki said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television: "We will fight outlaws regardless of their religion ... Whoever breaks the rules ... will be held to account -- forcefully." A U.S. general in Iraq has blamed the failure of last year's crackdown on violence that is killing hundreds of people a week in the city on a shortage of Iraqi troops and a failure to strike Shi'ite militias as well as anti-government Sunni rebels. Complaints from Saddam Hussein's once dominant Sunni Arabs that they are being persecuted by the Shi'ite majority have been boosted by reaction to the ousted leader's execution and video footage showing Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows. As a third clip of covert film emerged on the Internet on Tuesday showing Saddam lying on a hospital trolley with a vivid red wound on his throat, Dabbagh said a government investigation into the rowdy scenes at the execution had led to a man being summoned before magistrates. Responding to U.S. calls for the government to reach out to Sunnis and ease restrictions on employment for former members of Saddam's Baath party, Dabbagh said reform was planned that would help the "90 percent" of ex-Baathists who were "good citizens." Northeast of Baghdad, in Diyala province where Sunni rebels are also active, Iraqi army sources said Iraqi and U.S. troops had killed dozens of gunmen in fighting near Balad Ruz. At least 31 people of 35 aboard a Moldovan aircraft bringing Turkish workers to a U.S. military base near Baghdad were killed in a crash, Turkish officials said. They made no suggestion of hostile fire although Iraq insurgents claimed responsibility. (Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia, Ahmed Rasheed, Aseel Kami and Alastair Macdonald)
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
