US to pull 15,000 troops out of Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-04 14:37

The United States plans to maintain 135,000 troops in Iraq through this year even as more US military advisers are embedded with Iraqi forces to prepare them for a larger security role, top US defense officials said.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said some 15,000 troops whose deployments were extended for Iraq's January 30 elections will come home shortly, bringing US force levels in Iraq down to 135,000.

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz speaks during a hearing of the Senate Arms Services Committee in Washington.[AFP]

Asked how many US troops would be needed in Iraq over the next six months to a year, Wolfowitz told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, "135,000," adding later that that was "not a prediction, that's a planning factor."

"The goal isn't just to get our people home if that leaves the people who are still there in greater danger," Wolfowitz said. "The real thing is to get Iraqis on the front lines and Americans in a supporting role."

But Wolfowitz and General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, faced sharp questioning from senators about the numbers and quality of the existing Iraqi security force, and the size ofthe insurgency they face.

"When are the Iraqis going to fight for their own country?" demanded Senator Edward Kennedy, who has called for a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

"After 18 months shouldn't we be able to get a good many of our troops out with a goal of seeing the rest of ours out -- as a goal," he said.

Wolfowitz and Myers, however, refused to be drawn on a timeline for replacing US troops in Iraq with Iraqi forces.

Wolfowitz said commanders believe that areas of Iraq can be turned over to Iraqi security forces over the next six months.

"But what we don't want to do is prematurely hand over an area and then create a place where the enemy can organize and operate," he said. "I think you can see over the last couple years there have been a couple such mistake. We don't want to repeat them."

Keeping US forces in Iraq longer was "a worthwhile tradeoff" if it leads to capable Iraqi security forces being fielded faster, he said.

"We want to do whatever we need to do to increase Iraqi capabilities as fast as possible, and it may mean a little bit more investment at the front end in our capabilities so we bring them online faster," he said.

Myers acknowledged that the US military does not have a good measure of the quality of the estimated 136,000 Iraqi security forces that have been trained and equipped so far.

"I can't give you an estimate because that capacity and capability is building every day and it varies widely, as I just tried to describe. So it's difficult to do that," he said.

He estimated that 48 Iraqi battalions, or about 40,000 troops, are now capable of being deployed anywhere in the country for combat operations.

Wolfowitz said there were "a considerable number of unauthorized absences" in Iraqi army units, which he said on average were only 60 percent manned. Wolfowitz later said the percentage was higher for Iraqi national guard and special forces units.

Myers also said the military had no reliable estimates of the size of the insurgency they face in Iraq. Backtracking under questioning from senators, he said estimates existed but were classified.

He put the number of foreign fighters in Iraq at about 1,000 but said it was less clear how many Iraqi insurgents were hardened fighters, criminals or "fence-sitters" who could be drawn into the political process.

"We don't have the insight into those numbers, in most cases, to provide a good estimate that would be a fair thing to throw in front of the committee right now," Myers said.

"General Myers, I am disappointed that you don't have even a rough estimate of the number of insurgents," said Senator John McCain, a Republican.

"I don't know how you defeat an insurgency unless you have some handle on the number of people that you are facing," he said.

Neither Myers nor Wolfowitz offered details on the plans to embed US military personnel with Iraqi forces as advisers. Myers said how many troops will be assigned to the training mission was still being worked out.

"We have already instituted some assistance, training support, where we essentially do what you just said, chairman; that is embed trainers with Iraqi units," Myers said.

"Of course, our forces, while fighting insurgency, have also trained the national guard forces who, in many cases, work alongside our forces. So this is just an extension of that," he said.

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