The Fight For Iraq

BAGHDAD -- The U.S.'s top military official said Iraq's security situation was holding steady as the last of the 30,000 so-called surge troops departed and that he was hopeful that further withdrawals could take place later this year.

But U.S. and Iraqi officials remained sharply divided over the terms of the future American military presence here.

Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that Iraq's violence was continuing to subside. He said the overall level of violence in Baghdad was down to levels last seen more than four years ago.

Adm. Mullen, kicking off a three-day visit here, said U.S. and Iraqi forces were continuing to oust militants from their strongholds and places like the Sadr City area of Baghdad and, so far, preventing the militants from returning. From all I see, security conditions are holding," he said, adding that the gains gave him "hope we can continue the drawdown."

Washington is struggling to reach an agreement with Baghdad before a United Nations mandate authorizing the U.S. troop presence here expires at the end of the year. The Bush administration wants a formal agreement authorizing a long-term U.S. presence. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Monday said he wants a short-term "memorandum of understanding" that would carry less legal and political weight.

Iraqi officials said the memorandum would likely include a conditional timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, a provision opposed by the Bush administration.

Adm. Mullen declined to directly address Mr. Maliki's new proposal but said both governments felt a "sense of urgency" to complete an agreement. "I'm optimistic that we'll come to closure on this issue sometime this year."

Some senior U.S. officials believe the Iraqi government's increasing assertiveness in the talks is a result of the recent security improvements, which may have persuaded Iraqi leaders that they no longer need the U.S. to maintain stability in the country or to help them hold on to power.

Senior U.S. military commanders here and in Washington face difficult decisions about whether to withdraw additional American forces after the departure later this month of the last of the surge troops. The Bush administration had deployed the additional troops to Iraq last year to calm growing sectarian violence in the country.

U.S. troop levels here will fall to approximately 140,000 by the end of the summer, a similar level to that of earlier years of the war.

Many Pentagon senior officers want further reductions to relieve manpower strains on the armed forces and to free up more troops for Afghanistan, where conditions have deteriorated in recent months.

Local U.S. commanders in Iraq, by contrast, want to keep troop levels steady for as long as possible to prevent Iraq's recent security gains from eroding.

The number of attacks in Baghdad has fallen this year from a high of 740 in April to 116 in June and just 19 so far this month, said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a spokesman for the U.S. military command responsible for the Baghdad area.

Col. Stover attributed much of the improvements to a U.S. military effort to use attack helicopters and unmanned drones to kill militants who fired rockets and mortars at American posts or the heavily fortified Green Zone.

The U.S. military kept six Apache attack helicopters in the skies over Sadr City around the clock in recent weeks as part of the effort, he said. All told, the U.S. "took down" 93 rocket teams, he said.

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
July 8, 2008; Page A3