U.S. to Expand Iraqi Corps

Faced with persistent attacks from Iraqi insurgents, U.S.-led coalition forces have decided to expand the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps to free up occupation troops for more targeted offensives, the commanding general said Sunday.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said enemies of the occupation are likely to continue stepping up ambushes, assassinations and sabotage as the coalition works to meet a target date of June 30 for handing over power to an interim Iraqi government.

His remarks follow a week in which coalition troops mounted a fierce attack on suspected insurgent strongholds in Samarra and began pursuing them in other towns and villages with more aggressive attacks, dropping 500-pound bombs on suspected hide-outs.

U.S. offensives appeared to have driven insurgents into lying low this past week, the first in months unmarred by a major bombing or high-profile assassination. One U.S. soldier was killed and two wounded near Mosul on Sunday when a roadside bomb detonated as their three-vehicle convoy drove through the area.

The past week’s casualties have been low compared with a November death toll of 111 coalition troops, the worst month since April. The week also saw the average daily number of clashes between coalition forces and insurgents fall from 40 in November to 19.

Sanchez said his troops were bracing for the pace of attacks to mount as the handover date approached.

The stepped-up offensives coincide with greater use of Iraqi Civil Defense Corps recruits to perform labor-intensive security operations such as manning roadblocks and performing security checks.

Sanchez said the coalition, in which 130,000 U.S. troops comprise almost 90% of the occupation force, was pleased with the “effectiveness” of the newly recruited Iraqis and would boost their numbers from the current 13,000 to 40,000 by April.

Despite the dangers of guerrilla attacks against Iraqis cooperating with the coalition, Sanchez said there were plenty of applications to join the force. With unemployment rampant, the attraction of regular dollar wages overcomes fear of insurgent reprisals for many.

Although the conflict in Iraq has been characterized as “low-intensity” since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1, Sanchez made clear he would continue to use whatever tactics -- including heavy bombardment -- he considered necessary to fulfill his mission.

“We will continue to use whatever combat power is available to defeat the enemy,” the general said when asked about the use in recent days of 500-pound bombs in Fallouja and other hotbeds of insurgency. “When the enemy chooses to fight, we are going to eliminate them.”

Coalition forces have pledged to rebuild or reimburse in cases of property damage inflicted on Iraqi civilians by the intensified bombings to avoid further erosion of public support for the occupation.

The general described the hunt for Saddam Hussein as looking for “a needle in a haystack,” but said his troops would eventually find “the right haystack.” Capture of the fugitive leader remains a defining goal of the occupation. He acknowledged, however, that nabbing Hussein wouldn’t eradicate the guerrilla forces.

“Killing or capturing Saddam Hussein will have an impact on the level of violence, but it will not end it,” he said.

Sanchez said the expanding civil defense forces would welcome security troops from political parties but only as members of a unified corps and, until the handover, under the command and control of the coalition forces.

Shiite Muslim and Kurdish politicians have been lobbying for inclusion of their security detachments as autonomous units within the corps against the objections of the top U.S. civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer III.

Leaders of Sunni and other factions also fear that those party security units, if left intact or autonomous, could politicize and create divisions within the corps, which would be responsible for national defense after the transition.