Progress in Baghdad will take time-U.S. general
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A U.S.-backed Iraqi security plan seen as a last-ditch attempt to halt violence in Baghdad will not produce results overnight, a U.S. general warned on Sunday, after a one-ton suicide truck bomb killed 135 people.
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Tours of duty for U.S. soldiers in Iraq may be cut from 15 months to 12 if current improvements in security hold up, the U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday.
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U.S. and Iraqi forces are meeting little resistance as they sweep through Baghdad, a U.S. officer said on Friday, a day after Iraq's president said a Shi'ite militia had ordered its leaders to leave the country.
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WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a House panel yesterday that the United States should know in a few months if the Iraqi government is making progress toward peace and whether the United States "is going to have to look at other alternatives and consequences."
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A U.S.-Iraqi campaign to stabilize Baghdad will begin soon and the offensive against militants will be on a scale never seen during four years of war, American officers said on Sunday.
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The top American general in Iraq said   on Wednesday he foresaw Iraq assuming control of its own   security within 12 to 18 months with "very little" support from   U.S.-led forces.
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It will take three to five years before Iraq's government is stable enough to operate on its own, according to the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, who said the surge of American forces has not solved the country's broader problems.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will meet Iraqi leaders for talks in Baghdad on Saturday after criticizing what he called their disappointing progress in passing laws Washington views as critical to ending violence.
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The Iraqi government has made mixed progress in meeting political and security goals, a U.S. official said on Thursday citing a report that may add to rising calls for a change of course in the unpopular war.
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Military operations to retake the insurgent-held Iraqi city of Fallujah are progressing &quot;ahead of schedule,&quot; a top US Marine commander there said today.
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The U.S. general in charge of Baghdad  said Tuesday it would be at least another eight months before  the Iraqi capital had enough police, contradicting previous  U.S. claims that numbers were sufficient.  Maj. Gen. Pete Chiarelli, whose 1st Cavalry Division is  responsible for security in Baghdad and its suburbs -- an area  of about six million people -- said there were currently about  15,000 people working for the capital's force.
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A revised U.S. military plan envisions establishing security at the local level in Baghdad and elsewhere by next summer, it likely would take another year to get Iraqi forces ready to enforce any newfound stability, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
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Iraq's foreign minister said on Thursday the government had made progress in responding to U.S. goals for improved security and political reconciliation ahead of key reports soon to be delivered to the U.S. Congress.
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Growing impatience with the slow pace of work to improve basic services like electricity and water could threaten security gains in Iraq's Anbar province, a former al Qaeda stronghold, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
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U.S.-led soldiers control only about a third of Baghdad, the military said on Monday, almost four months into a security crackdown during which troops are dying at rates not seen for more than two years.
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Iraq's political leaders are showing promising new signs of progress toward reconciliation, yet still face difficult decisions on how to stabilize the country, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
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U.S.-funded reconstruction in Iraq  is gaining pace in some areas, albeit on a smaller scale than  hoped, despite mounting attacks and intimidation by insurgents,  said a senior U.S. official on Wednesday.