U.S. says it can’t protect every Iraqi

The new U.S. commander in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that U.S.-led forces cannot protect all Iraqis from “thugs with no soul” who are bent on reigniting sectarian warfare and derailing a major security crackdown.

In his first news conference since taking over last month, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said he shared “the horror and the sorrow and the sadness” at seeing more than 100 Shiite Muslim pilgrims killed Tuesday by two suicide bombers who mingled in the town of Hillah with throngs heading for a religious commemoration in the nearby holy city of Karbala.

What he did not offer was a strategy for dealing with such attacks, underscoring a major dilemma facing U.S. and Iraqi forces as they carry out what has been described as a last-ditch effort to curb the deadly civil war.

“Some sensational attacks inevitably will continue to take place, though every effort will be made to reduce their numbers,” Petraeus told journalists gathered in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

Estimates of the number of pilgrims currently on the roads to Karbala range as high as 7 million, he said, and it was “an enormous task to protect all of them.”

In the months leading up to the crackdown, U.S. officials thought Shiite Muslim militants would cause the biggest headache. A Pentagon assessment in December said Shiite militias such as the powerful Al Mahdi army, loyal to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr, were killing more civilians than were Sunni Arab terrorist groups.

Sadr’s followers have staged two major uprisings against U.S. troops since the American-led invasion in March 2003. Hoping to avoid a repetition, U.S. and Iraqi commanders spent weeks negotiating, through community leaders, for access to the Al Mahdi militia’s Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, a vast, teeming slum named after the cleric’s revered late father.

Under intense government pressure, Sadr ordered his followers off the streets and has so far refused to be goaded back into the fight, despite his insistence that the security plan should be implemented by Iraqis only.

When U.S. and Iraqi forces finally politely knocked on residents’ doors in Sadr City this week, they were allowed in without incident.

The number of execution-style killings blamed largely on Sadr’s followers has dropped. Police recovered five unidentified bodies in Baghdad on Thursday, compared with more than 30 on many days before the crackdown.

Two other bodies, showing signs of torture, were found south of the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

“In many ways, the United States has lost the argument that the Shiites are the main problem in Iraq, because they are not fighting,” said Vali Nasr, an expert on Iraq’s Sunni-Shiite conflict at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. “They disappeared.”

By waiting out the conflict, some analysts believe, Sadr could come out the winner, securing the gratitude of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a fellow Shiite, while allowing the United States to take care of the insurgency.

The fiery bombings that are the signature of Sunni Arab insurgents have continued unabated, with at least 192 Shiites killed in four days of sustained attacks on the columns of pilgrims carrying brightly colored flags and banners inscribed with religious sayings.

Gunmen firing from orchards Thursday killed at least one pilgrim and injured two others as they walked through Yousifiya, south of Baghdad, police said. Police also recovered the bodies of three elderly men who they believe were kidnapped and killed along the pilgrimage route through Sunni-dominated west Baghdad.

At least 11 other Iraqis were killed in unrelated bomb blasts, mortar fire and drive-by shootings, police said.

Petraeus stressed that it was still early and that the joint security effort would take months to show results. The additional 21,500 U.S. combat troops promised for Baghdad and Al Anbar province to the west won’t be fully deployed until early June, he said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken initial steps to respond to the latest threats. Major markets, a favorite target of car bombers, are being reinforced with blast walls, with deliveries allowed only during specific hours of the morning, Petraeus said.

But, he acknowledged, “There is a point at which, if someone is willing to blow up himself, particularly perhaps disguise himself and use a vest rather than a vehicle, the problem becomes very, very difficult.”

Some of the most dramatic attacks of recent weeks have taken place outside Baghdad. They include the bombing of a Sunni mosque in Al Anbar province that killed 37 people; the abduction and slaying of 14 policemen in Diyala province; and the suicide attacks on Shiite pilgrims in Hillah, which is in Babil province.

Although Baghdad will remain the focus of the crackdown, Petraeus said, some additional troops are to be deployed to outlying areas, including Diyala.

“We always anticipated that some of the bad guys would go other places and the Iraqi and coalition forces will go after them,” he said.

U.S. and Iraqi troops captured 32 suspected insurgents in raids Thursday north of Baghdad in Baiji, Duluiya and the Jabouri peninsula along the Tigris River, the military said in a statement.

Petraeus does not see any immediate need for additional troops to implement the crackdown after the Pentagon approved his request for 2,200 military police to handle the expected increase in detainees.

Ultimately, he said, the solution in Iraq would have to be a political one.

“Any student of history recognizes that there is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq,” he said. “Military action is necessary to help improve security ... but it is not sufficient.”

It is a point U.S. officials, including Petraeus’ predecessor, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., have been making for several years as they pressed Iraqis to assume control of their country after the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein.

Previous attempts to reconcile the warring ethnic and religious communities have faltered over issues such as the role of private militias, integration of former members of Hussein’s regime and the division of power and resources. But Petraeus said there were some signs of progress, including the agreement on draft legislation governing the distribution of Iraq’s massive oil wealth.

zavis@latimes.com

Times staff writer Tina Susman in Baghdad and special correspondents in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Hillah contributed to this report.