BAQOUBA, Iraq - The US commander of a new offensive north of Baghdad, reclaiming insurgent territory day by day, said Sunday his Iraqi partners may be too weak to hold onto the gains. The Iraqi military does not even have enough ammunition, said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek: "They're not quite up to the job yet."

US Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Commanding General, 3rd Infantry Division and Multi-National Division-Center, briefs the media during a a press conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 24, 2007. [AP]

His counterpart south of Baghdad seemed to agree, saying US troops are too few to garrison the districts newly rid of insurgents. "It can't be coalition (US) forces. We have what we have. There's got to be more Iraqi security forces," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch.

The two commanders spoke after a deadly day for the US military in Iraq. At least 12 soldiers were killed on Saturday from roadside bombings and other causes, leaving at least 31 dead for the week.

In central Baghdad, meanwhile, the Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and two others to death for their roles in the bloody suppression of Iraq's restive Kurdish minority during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, a campaign prosecutors said left 180,000 dead.

Al-Majid, a cousin of executed former president Saddam Hussein and a one-time Baath Party leader in the north, was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering army and security services to use chemical weapons in the offensive against the independence-minded Kurds of northern Iraq, viewed by Saddam as traitors and Iranian allies.

Ex-defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy operations director for the Iraqi military, also were sentenced to hang for the anti-Kurdish atrocities. Two others, former intelligence officials under Saddam, were sentenced to life in prison, and the charges against a former northern governor were dismissed.

In the US offensive dubbed Operation Arrowhead Ripper, some 10,000 American troops were in their sixth day of combat to drive Sunni al-Qaida militants from their stronghold in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Between 60 and 100 suspected al-Qaida fighters and one US soldier have been killed so far in the fighting in western Baqouba, said Bednarek, the 25th Infantry Division's deputy commander for operations. About 60 insurgents were detained, he said.

He estimated between 50 and 100 insurgents were inside a US security cordon in the city. "We're closing the noose," Bednarek told The Associated Press. "It's the hardcore fighters left - guys who will die for their cause."

He said US forces now control about 60 percent of the city's west side, but "the challenge now is, how do you hold onto the terrain you've cleared? You have to do that shoulder-to-shoulder with Iraqi security forces. And they're not quite up to the job yet."

Across Diyala province, where Baqouba is the capital, Iraqi troops are short on uniforms, weapons, ammunition, trucks and radios, he said.

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