BAGHDAD,
November 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Two U.S. soldiers
were killed and a Polish soldier injured in separate attacks in Iraq,
as Washington disclosed Thursday, November 6, plans to cut down the
number of troops with the beginning of a "rough winter" in
the war-ravaged country.
One
of the soldiers was killed Thursday near Husaybah, on the border with
Syria, 335 kilometers (210 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S. military
was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying in a statement.
"One
U.S. soldier from 1st Squadron Armored Cavalry Regiment, attached to
the 82nd Airborne Division, was killed when a military truck struck a
landmine while traveling along a border road near the Husaybah border
crossing point," a statement said.
The
other soldier died and two more were wounded Wednesday, November 5,
evening "when their patrol was ambushed by rocket-propelled
grenades and small arms fire near the city of Mahmudiyah at
approximately 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) November 5," read another
statement.
The
deaths raise to 142 the number of U.S. troops killed in combat since
May 1, when Washington declared major hostilities had ended. During
the six-week offensive on Iraq before that date, 114 Americans died
from hostile fire.
Also,
an Iraqi interpreter working for U.S. forces was wounded Thursday when
assailants fired at a checkpoint manned by U.S. soldiers and Iraqi
police in northern Iraq, police said.
The
U.S. forces did not immediately confirm the incident, but Captain
Arkan Hamed al-Obeidi, who heads a nearby police station, confirmed
that Sami Ahmed, a 30-year-old interpreter, was wounded around when
six Katyusha rockets were fired at the joint checkpoint.
A
Polish officer was also injured during an attack on a military convoy
40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Karbala, the first casualty suffered
by Warsaw's troops in the country, a Polish Defense Ministry spokesman
said.
Rough
Winter
This
comes as Britain's special representative in Iraq Jeremy Greenstock
warned occupation forces face a "rough winter on the security
front" following a recent surge of violence here.
"
'Terrorists' are trying to make Iraq ungovernable and choosing their
targets cleverly. They want to try and close Baghdad down,"
Greenstock said in an interview with The Times newspaper.
Greenstock
said the U.S.-led forces had to "earn time" from an
increasingly skeptical local population and "Iraqicise" the
security operation as quickly as possible to make Iraqis the
"acceptable face of security".
Many
ordinary Iraqis are seething with anger and frustrations over the
continued occupation of their oil-rich country and the U.S. military
provocations, including detentions, incursions and unjustified
killings.
"I
believe it's do-able but I believe we're in for a rough winter on the
security front," said Greenstock, saying, however, that
multinational troops could be in the country "for some
time".
Former
Generals
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|
"I believe we're in for a rough winter on the security front," Greenstock
|
In
a separate development, three former generals of Iraq's toppled
regime, including the brother of an official wanted by the United
States, were detained this week, their families and neighbors said
Thursday.
The
U.S. military had previously announced the arrest of two of the former
regime officers in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30
miles) west of Baghdad.
"General
Hamed Sarhan and his son Mohammad, a lieutenant in the security
services, were arrested yesterday in their house," a neighbor,
Abdelrahman al-Hammadi, said.
Sarhan
is a brother of Khamis Sarhan al-Mohammad, a former leading member of
Saddam Hussein's Baath party, who figures on a list of 55 most-wanted
ex-regime officials.
The
general was responsible for military printing presses.
Reduction
And Rotation
In
the meantime, senior U.S. defense officials said the Pentagon is
preparing to rotate its forces in Iraq next year, amid plans to cut
back U.S. troop numbers to 100,000 while Iraqi security forces
increase in size.
U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed orders to set in motion a
force rotation next year that will send back U.S. Marines along with
active duty army and national guard and reserve units, a senior
defense official said Wednesday.
The
rotation would involve the replacement of the bulk of the 132,000 U.S.
troops now in Iraq and will include some 35,000 to 45,000 national
guard and reservists, said the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Although
most of the deployment plan has long been in place, the Pentagon had
held off a final decision in hopes that a third multinational division
could be formed to take up some of the slack.
But
the multinational division has so far failed to materialize, forcing
the Pentagon to implement a backup plan to make up the difference with
additional U.S. forces.
General
Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the
Pentagon would be announcing "a very specific laydown" on
Thursday.
"It
does include the call-up of Reserves. It does include the use of
Marine forces. It does include Navy and Air Force with their
capabilities to participate," he said at a congressional
committee hearing.
Pace
also told the House of Representatives Armed Services committee that
the Pentagon plans to reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq to about
100,000 by May 2003 as new units are rotated in.
He
said the reduction from four to three divisions would be accommodated
by an increase in the size of Iraqi security forces from about 115,000
to some 171,000.
The
Pentagon also is counting on other countries sending peacekeepers to
Iraq, he said.
Pace
said the United States has received commitments from countries
contributing troops to the occupation forces to maintain the two
multinational divisions now in the country, one led by Poland and the
other by Britain.
But
many countries rebuffed the U.S. request for a military commitment in
Iraq, amidst fears rising against the backdrop of deteriorating
security situation in the war-scarred country and the fact that it is
still controlled by "occupying" powers.
