Iraq Insurgents’ Roadside Bombs Are Getting Bigger

Bombs used with deadly effect against U.S. troops in Iraq have recently become more powerful, the latest escalation in the insurgency, Pentagon officials said Friday.

Army Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez said insurgents had greatly increased the destructive power of roadside bombs by packing more explosives into the munitions, which the military calls improvised explosive devices.

“We’ve noticed in the recent couple of weeks that the IEDs are all being built more powerfully, with more explosive effort in a smaller number of IEDs,” Rodriguez told reporters.

On Thursday, a roadside bomb in northern Baghdad killed seven soldiers riding in a Bradley fighting vehicle, one of the most heavily armored in the U.S. military.

Pentagon officials also said Friday that an assessment team was being sent to Iraq to review the progress of the country’s fledgling security forces.

The team, headed by retired Army Gen. Gary E. Luck, will evaluate the Iraqi troops and present conclusions to Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. U.S. officials have given mixed reviews to the troops’ combat performance, saying the biggest problem has been developing a reliable officer corps that can lead troops in battle.

Pentagon officials say that select units performed well during recent operations in Fallouja and Samarra but that other units fled in the face of intense combat.

“There’s areas where [the Iraqi forces have] been overwhelmed by their opposition and have had to step back and live to fight another day,” Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said. “And there’s areas where they’ve just plain not participated in the fight.”

But Di Rita called the overall trend in the troops’ development positive, saying they are taking an increased role in the security of their country.

The positive assessments contrasted with one issued a day earlier by Brent Scowcroft, who was national security advisor to President George H.W. Bush.

Scowcroft warned that the Iraqi national election scheduled for Jan. 30 could inflame the conflict and, rather than leading to stability, could increase the risk of civil war and further alienate Iraq’s minority Sunni Muslim population.

President Bush, speaking Friday to reporters in the Oval Office, rejected Scowcroft’s warning, saying the election would be “such an incredibly hopeful experience for the Iraqi people.” Asked whether he shared Scowcroft’s concerns, Bush told reporters, “Quite the opposite.”

“We’re making great progress,” he said. “I suspect if you were asking me questions 18 months ago and I said there’s going to be elections in Iraq, you would have had trouble containing yourself from laughing out loud at the president.”

Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, the top operational commander in Iraq, had said Thursday that conditions in significant areas of four major provinces were too unstable for voting.

“I understand that parts of the Sunni area are being targeted by these killers,” Bush said Friday, during a photo session in the Oval Office at which he announced the leadership of a commission to study U.S. tax policy. “And their message is that if you vote, we’ll kill you. But the real message is that ‘we can’t stand democracy.’ ”

Iraqi voters are to choose a transitional national assembly that will write a new constitution and select a government. The Iraqi Islamic Party, the leading Sunni political party, has withdrawn from the election, saying it should be delayed until security improves in Sunni regions. Interim Iraqi President Ghazi Ajil Yawer, a Sunni, suggested this week that the election might need to be delayed.

The Bush administration and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi say balloting should be held on schedule.