By AFP
Washington : US lawmakers Tuesday grilled the top US general in Iraq amid fierce fighting on the ground as Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr threatened to end a truce which had helped staunch the bloodshed.
Sadr’s threat hung over the key hearing in the US Congress, as General David Petraeus urged troop withdrawals to be frozen for at least 45 days after July to allow military commanders to review security.
But as fierce fighting with Shiite militias linked to Sadr raged in a Baghdad neighborhood for the third straight day, Democrats charged that Petraeus was seeking carte blanche for an open-ended troop deployment.
“I recommend to my chain of command that we continue the drawdown of the surge combat forces and that, upon the withdrawal of the last surge brigade combat team in July, we undertake a 45-day period of consolidation and evaluation,” Petraeus told lawmakers.
His recommendation came as Sadr threatened to end the truce agreed with his militia in August which helped lead to a sharp drop in violence in Iraq in the second half of last year.
The radical leader also cancelled a massive anti-US demonstration set for Baghdad for Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the toppling of late dictator Saddam Hussein.
“The Jaish al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army) is hand in hand with the Iraqi people to achieve security, stability and liberation. If it is of interest to lift the ceasefire to achieve the aims and goals, it will be announced in a separate statement,” Sadr said in a communique.
Sadr’s threat came after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias in southern Basra sparking deadly clashes between the Mahdi Army and government troops.
Iraqi and US forces have clashed with Sadr’s militia in Baghdad and Basra since Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shiite militiamen in Basra on March 25. The fighting died down after Sadr called his fighters off on March 30, but it erupted again in the militia’s Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City on Sunday.
Petraeus, accompanied by the US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that he had not recommended the Iraqi government offensive and it was “not adequately planned and prepared.”
He also accused Iran of meddling in Iraq saying the upsurge in violence “highlighted the destructive role Iran has played in funding, training, arming and directing the so-called special groups.”
But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shot back late Tuesday that Washington had used the attacks of September 11, 2001 as a “pretext” to attack Afghanistan and Iraq.
“On the pretext of this incident a major military operation was launched and oppressed Afghanistan was attacked. Tens of thousands of people have been killed until now,” he said in a speech broadcast on state television. “Poor Iraq was attacked.
According to official figures … one million people have been killed.” The two days of Congressional testimony will shape the coming months of Iraq policy, and US President George W. Bush is to address the nation Thursday.
But Bush has already indicated he would be guided by recommendations of his military and civilian advisors. The US military is currently withdrawing five combat brigades sent into Iraq early last year — to be completed by July.
That would bring troop levels down from about 158,000 to 140,000.
Democrat chairman Joseph Biden slammed the drawdown as insufficient and stressed that the strategic purpose of the surge — providing space for political reconciliation — had not been accomplished.
“We are stuck where we started before the surge: with 140,000 troops in Iraq — and no end in sight,” Biden said. “That is unsustainable for our military and unacceptable to the American people.”
A freeze in bringing troops home is likely to be unpopular in the US, which has seen more than 4,000 soldiers killed in the conflict, now stretching into its sixth year. The number of Iraqis killed in March climbed to 1,082, mostly civilians, the highest monthly figure reported by government ministries since August, confirming a resurgence in violence in recent months.
Nine US soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the past three days, eight of them in Baghdad where American and Iraqi forces have been battling Shiite militiamen in Sadr City. More than 30 Iraqis have been killed in the clashes and scores wounded, Iraqi security officials said.