"There is no decision to pull out early,” Rumsfeld

TOKYO, BAGHDAD, November 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied Friday, November 14, that the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq was in trouble because of a surge of attacks, three U.S. soldiers were wounded in an attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul where the American military made a series of arrests.

Rumsfeld arrived in Tokyo Friday with Japan’s reluctance to send troops to Iraq overshadowing planned discussions on a realignment of U.S. military forces in Asia.

He made the remark en route to Tokyo to meet with Japanese leaders, who Thursday backed off from sending troops to Iraq to help with humanitarian assistance this year following a bombing that killed 18 Italians and nine Iraqis in Nasiriyah.

Rumsfeld told reporters on the flight from Guam to Tokyo that every country should make its own judgment about whether to send their troops to Iraq, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Obviously, attacks went on, and folks are doing everything to effectively deal with them," he said.

"We feel we are making progress. We also recognize it is a dangerous place, and that the incidence of low-level, low-intensity conflict techniques do create danger.

"We understand that, and we intend to prevail," he said.

Asked whether the coalition was in trouble because of the attacks, Rumsfeld said: "No. There are 32 countries with forces on the ground in Iraq.

"The reaction of the Italian government to the attack that took place recently was that not only the coalition is not in trouble, but that they intend to stay in the coalition.

"I believe they may even be sending replacement forces," he added.

Rumsfeld said it was no surprise that the supporters of the former regime were "going to school on us," making adjustments to their tactics as they learned.

The question was, he said, "who can outlast the other. And the answer is we are going to outlast them," he said.

Rumsfeld landed at Tokyo's Haneda airport in the afternoon and went straight to a meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

However, and despite a new U.S. effort to speed up the return of sovereignty to Iraqis, Rumsfeld said that U.S. and coalition forces would not leave Iraq any earlier than “necessary”.

"There is no decision to pull out early, indeed quite the contrary. The President has made the statement that we will stay there as long as is necessary," Rumsfeld told members of U.S. forces in the Western Pacific.

Rumsfeld further said the “troops will stay in Iraq until democracy is established there - and beyond the transfer of power to Iraqi hands,” adding “this could take at least two years,” according to the BBC online news service.

Three U.S. Soldiers Wounded

U.S. forces come under daily attacks in Mosul

In Iraq, however, the attacks continued from the Iraqi resistance and retaliatory arrests by the U.S.-led occupation forces also continued.

Three U.S. soldiers were wounded in an attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul where the American military made a series of arrests, according to a U.S. military spokesman Friday.

"Yesterday (Thursday) evening, three soldiers were wounded in an improvised explosive device attack on their convoy in the centre of Mosul," 360 kilometers (224 miles) north of Baghdad, said Major Hugh Cate of the 101st Airborne Division.

He said that over three days, U.S. troops had arrested 78 "loyalists of the former regime" in a campaign against what he termed “insurgents loyal to ousted leader Saddam Hussein”.

"Yesterday evening, we captured 14 loyalists of the former regime, 44 the day before and 20 others the day before that (Tuesday)" in the province of Mosul, Cate said.

He said the campaign was not linked to Operation Iron Hammer being carried out in Baghdad against “Saddam loyalists and insurgents”.