The number of American troops in joint
operations with the Iraqi military has dropped significantly over the last
three months, U.S. officials said. Iraqi
soldiers have outnumbered their American counterparts by a ratio of nearly
4:1 in joint brigade-level operations.
Gen. George Casey, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, has
briefed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the decreasing role of U.S.
soldiers in joint operations, Middle East Newsline reported.
"He [Casey] talked, for example, about an operation recently in one of
the more contentious areas in the country, where the ratio was something on
the order of 550 Iraqi security forces and 150 or 175 U.S. forces," Pentagon
spokesman Larry Di Rita said. "And he talked about how those kinds of
brigade-level operations are happening with a lot more frequency with those
kinds of ratios."
Casey ordered the use of an increasing number of Iraqi troops as part of
a U.S. policy to expand the role of Iraqi military
and police in counter-insurgency operations. The general has examined the
effectiveness of joint operations as part of his forthcoming recommendation
on U.S. force levels in Iraq.
So far, Di Rita said, Casey has not issued any recommendation to the
Pentagon. But the U.S. general has reported to Rumsfeld continued progress
in developing Iraqi military and security forces.
The United States has fewer than 140,000 troops in Iraq and plans to
gradually reduce this number in 2005, officials said. At the same time, Iraq
has more than 160,000 trained and equipped military and police personnel.
"He [Casey] talked about increasing numbers of operations at the brigade
level that has significantly more Iraqi security forces than U.S. security
forces at the brigade level," Di Rita said on April 29. "So he feels that
the Iraqi security force progress continues to be on track, but he hasn't,
to my knowledge, made any recommendations about U.S. force levels.
