U.S. general says security permanent in Iraq’s south – paper

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. commander who oversees most of southern Iraq said Thursday that he believes recent security gains there are permanent — and that some of his troops are openly wondering why they’re still there, even though he believes their presence remains crucial, the U.S. Today newspaper said on Friday. As the Obama administration considers how quickly to pull troops out of Iraq and shift some of them to Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Michael Oates told reporters in Baghdad that his region of Iraq is seeing about two attacks on U.S. servicemembers each day — a 90% reduction compared with the worst periods of the nearly 6-year-old war. Oates was asked whether the security gains made in the eight provinces he oversees are fragile and could quickly reverse course. He said no and cited the diminishing strength of Shiite extremist groups and al-Qaeda, as well as the Jan. 31 elections that were held with no major attacks. “In southern Iraq, it’s my considered opinion that (the progress) is not reversible,” Oates said. The situation is less peaceful in parts of northern Iraq, particularly the city of Mosul, which commanders have called al-Qaeda in Iraq’s last urban stronghold. A suicide car bomber there killed four U.S. servicemembers on Monday in the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces since May. Violence has declined sharply in Baghdad, although car bombs there killed at least 12 people on Wednesday. President Obama has said he plans to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, but he has left open the possibility of leaving some troops behind in an advisory capacity to train their Iraqi counterparts — a role Oates called instrumental. The two-star general also said that Iran could still be a destabilizing influence in Iraq. Although his troops still find artillery and roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators that are “fairly attributable” to Iran, Oates said those discoveries have decreased significantly. “The people in Iraq who used to receive these materials, I think, are fewer in number. Those who were inspired to commit violence are fewer in number,” Oates said. “You connect all those pieces together, the evidence is fairly compelling that something has changed in southern Iraq with regards to malign Iranian influence.” Oates said that his troops’ focus has shifted to training Iraqis and providing security for teams of diplomats and engineers. Previously, Oates said “training” of Iraqi troops consisted of U.S. troops organizing an operation and, at the last minute, “they’d grab a couple of Iraqis and say, ‘Come on.’ ” Now, Iraqis are leading all operations in the region with support from the Americans, he said. That shift has led to some grumbling in the rank and file, Oates said. “If you go out and talk to individual soldiers,” he said, “you’ll get some anecdotal reports back about, ‘Wow, I’m not doing what I thought I was going to be doing,’ or, ‘This isn’t what I signed up to do.’ ” However, Oates said the new missions were aimed at addressing what he views as the largest remaining threat to security in the area — the failure of local governments to provide their citizens with basic services such as electricity and water. SH (I) 1