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Just Another Day for U.S. Military in Iraq By RYAN LENZ and ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writers
Sun Dec 25, 6:33 PM ET



U.S. Army soldiers carried out raids in dusty Iraqi towns. Military doctors treated soldiers wounded by roadside bombs. Christmas in Iraq was just another day on the front lines for the U.S. military.

Troops woke long before sunrise on a cold, rainy Christmas morning to raid an upscale neighborhood a few miles from their base. In honor of the day, they dubbed the target "Whoville," after the town in the Dr. Seuss book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Commanders said they ordered the operation because they did not know the identities of the neighborhood's residents and several roadside bombs had recently been planted near the district, which isn't far from Forward Operating Base Summerall in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad,

U.S. patrols had never before ventured into the neighborhood, where the streets are lined with spacious homes.

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade knew they weren't going to be welcome when they arrived in the dead of night. It just made sense to nickname the target after the village raided by Seuss' Grinch on Christmas morning, they said.

"It was appropriate. I did feel like the Grinch," said Pfc. John Parkes, 31, of Cortland, N.Y., a medic in one of several groups called "quick reaction teams" that respond to roadside explosions.

The raiders broke down doors, confiscated illegal machine guns, plastic bags of ammunition and gun clips. Iraqi law allows households to own AK-47s, but with limitations.

For many soldiers in the 101st, it was their second Christmas in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The brigade, known as "Rakkasans," also raided a village on Thanksgiving morning this year.

For many soldiers, the holidays are more of a benchmark for their time in Iraq than a special day.

"Believe it or not, I didn't realize it was Christmas until last night," said 1st Sgt. Andre Johnson, 38, of Baton Rouge, La. "It's just another day, man."

Another day on patrol. Another day walking the streets while the cold wind cut through their uniforms and a chilling drizzle coated their faces. The neighborhood's residents stayed inside, peeking through windows at the passing soldiers.

Sgt. Jared Jones, 21, of Lafayette, Ind., said Christmas away from home can be emotional for some, but he buries himself in his job.

"The mission comes first," he said, pulling heavily on a cigarette after returning to the base. "I was out here 15 months the last time I was in Iraq. Holidays don't matter much to me."

Maj. Alex Lee sees Iraq from a different perspective serving in Balad, a town 50 miles north of Baghdad.

He is a doctor at the largest U.S. military hospital in Iraq, and his early Christmas shift began quickly: Four American soldiers were flown in by helicopter suffering from burns caused by a roadside bombing near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.

One soldier arrived with burns on his back. His exposed legs trembled from the cold and he unconsciously tore off an air tube placed down his throat. A sweating medic knelt beside him and told the doctors about his condition.

"This is the most medically rewarding thing I'll ever do," Lee, of Bakersfield, Calif., said as he stood in the emergency room, its floor speckled with blood. "This is why we joined up."

"Honestly, it doesn't feel like a holiday," he added. "But for the guys that are conscious, we try to say `Merry Christmas' to them. But it is hard to keep holiday spirits up."

Located on an air base, the hospital is a stretch of interconnected white plastic tents covering more than 35,000 square feet.

For Senior Airman Heather Ross, a medical technician, Christmas involved administering intravenous fluids and cleaning up after patients, mostly Iraqi soldiers wounded during an ambush on Saturday. One of her patients was a 4-year-old boy injured in a mortar attack that killed his two brothers.

"It's not even a holiday here. It doesn't feel like Christmas. My 18-month old daughter is home for the second straight Christmas without me," said Ross, of San Antonio.

During a pause between rounds, she showed e-mails of her daughter to visitors and e-mailed others to family and friends.

___

Associated Press writer Ryan Lenz reported this story from Beiji, AP writer Antonio Castaneda reported from Balad.



Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


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Raiders kill 10 police, soldiers

Monday, December 26, 2005; Posted: 3:34 a.m. EST (08:34 GMT)

• Special ReportBAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) -- Insurgents killed five Iraqi policemen and five soldiers in coordinated attacks north of Baghdad on Monday, the police and army said.

Attackers jumped out of a minibus in the early morning and began firing mortar rounds and rocket propelled grenades at a police checkpoint near a base for Interior Ministry commandos in Buhriz, about 60 km (37 miles) from Baghdad, police said.

As they got closer, they also began hurling hand grenades.

At least six guerrillas were killed in the ensuing clashes with the police, which lasted several hours, police said.

"They attacked us from all sides," said one police officer at the scene.

The attack had been planned carefully. A road in Buhriz leading up to the checkpoint was laid with roadside bombs, delaying backup police forces sent in from the nearby town of Baquba to help, police said.

Also near Baquba, gunmen killed five Iraqi army soldiers in a small village in a separate, but apparently coordinated attack, the army said.

The soldiers in the village of Dhabab, roughly 100 km north of Baghdad, were leaving for work or in the middle of their morning routine when they were shot dead, the army said.

Violence in Iraq has surged in the past few days after a lull in attacks earlier this month during parliamentary elections, partly due to an informal truce by some Sunni Arab insurgent groups and strict security measures at the time.

The attack followed a major assault on Iraqi security forces on Friday when guerrillas stormed an army post, killing 10 soldiers and wounding 20.

Insurgents frequently target Iraqi soldiers and police, who lack sophisticated armour and equipment used by U.S. forces.

Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AE8...A314E2D426D.htm

Deadly attacks hit Iraqi, US forces


Monday 26 December 2005, 10:53 Makka Time, 7:53 GMT


A roadside bomb destroyed a US tank in Baghdad on Sunday

Iraq has returned to its violent ways after a brief lull during a fairly peaceful poll - secured partly by an informal ceasefire by Sunni Arab fighters hoping for representation in parliament.


A group of about 30 armed men attacked a police checkpoint in Buhriz, 65km northeast of Baghdad on Monday, killing five policemen and injuring four, police said.



The raid, involving mortar, anti-tank and small arms fire, targeted a checkpoint in Buhriz, 60km northeast of the capital.



Police said six of the attackers were killed when police officers returned fire.



In the village of Dhabab, 100km from Baghdad, five soldiers were killed by armed men while leaving for work or during their morning routine in separate but apparently coordinated attacks, the army said.



Two US soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad on Christmas Day (Sunday), the US army announced on Monday.



A press release by the US army said one soldier was killed in a roadside bomb explosion and the other by an improvised explosive device.



A university professor, Nofal Ahmed, was killed by armed men outside his home.



Police said they had also recovered the bodies of three people killed in and around Baghdad, including that of a policeman.



Bombs struck Iraqi police and army patrols and destroyed a US Abrams tank in Baghdad on Sunday.



Dawn attack



The tank was left in flames after a dawn attack in eastern Baghdad. Witnesses said it had been destroyed by a roadside bomb.

Two soldiers were killed and six wounded in a mortar attack on an Iraqi base at al-Mahmudiya, just south of the capital.

In total, four car bombs went off in quick succession across Baghdad. Two policemen and a civilian were wounded when one of them, in a parked car, exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in the Karada neighbourhood, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source said.

Details of casualties in the other blasts were not immediately available.


Violence returned to several
cities soon after the elections


In Kirkuk, where Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen are vying for control of the northern oilfields, a civilian was killed and seven wounded when a car bomb went off near a police patrol.

Further north, in Mosul, Iraq's third city where ethnic tensions between Arabs and Kurds are also high, a roadside bomb killed a policeman when it detonated close to his patrol.

The killing of a Sunni Arab student leader, abducted after heading two demonstrations against the election results, prompted accusations against militias loyal to the ruling Shia alliance and their Kurdish allies in the interim government.

Anger flared around the university campus in Mosul after the body of Qusay Salah al-Din, president of the student union, was identified. He had been kidnapped on Thursday with one of his friends. The two bodies were found on Saturday, handcuffed and shot in the head.

No group claimed responsibility for the killing.

Boycott threat?

Official election results are not expected before January, but preliminary reports suggest that Shia-based religious parties will dominate parliament, heightening fears of sectarian division.

"Without the Sunni parties there will be no consensus government"

Jalal Talabani,
Iraqi President


Sunni and secular parties were reported to have demanded a re-run of the 15 December election and threatened to boycott parliament.

But one of the main prominent Sunni Arab groups, the Iraqi Concord Front, denied reports that it had decided to boycott the political process.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni politician, speaking to Aljazeera by telephone from Amman on Sunday, said groups that had rejected the outcome of recent elections in Iraq had met in Amman to demand the annulment of election results in a number of cities.

But he added: "We have not decided to suspend participation in the political process."

Talabani plea

Aljazeera's correspondent in Jordan spoke to another representative, Shaikh Khalaf al-Alayaan, who however said opposition groups had agreed not to participate in any government, even a government of national unity.

The correspondent said delegates of the political parties held a meeting at the resident of the leader of the secular Iraqi List, Iyad Allawi, and decided they would boycott the political process as long as the matter of their representation in the new parliament was not settled.

Meanwhile, Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, urged Sunnis to join a consensus government.

Speaking in Sulemaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan, in between talks with Zalmay Khalizad, the US ambassador, Talabani said: "Without Sunni parties there will be no consensus government ... without consensus government there will be no unity, there will be no peace."


Aljazeera + Agencies

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...?storyID=433175

Iraqi elections show U.S. policy failures

By DANIEL SNEIDER
First published: Monday, December 26, 2005

The key to an American exit from Iraq is not the number of Iraqi troops and police that we have trained. It is the formation of an Iraqi government that Iraqis of all communities accept as a legitimate expression of their will.
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A legitimate Iraqi government sooner or later, and likely sooner, will ask the United States to leave. Occupation and legitimacy cannot survive together for very long.

Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the Iraqi elections held this month appear to have failed to create a legitimate Iraqi government. The voting patterns in Iraq, now clear over three votes in the past year, are firmly fixed.

The Kurds, who want an independent Kurdistan, vote for Kurds. Shiite Arabs overwhelmingly vote for those who have the endorsement of their clerical leaders and who stand for the unfettered dominion of a long-suppressed majority. And Sunni Arabs, when they chose to express themselves through ballots, still believe they are the rightful rulers of a united Iraq.

Among these three communities there is no common view of what Iraq is, much less who should rule it. They sit on the edge of all-out communal civil war. The excursions into the voting booth are only another form of expression of the sectarian sentiments otherwise visible in the brutal insurgency and the response to it.

American officials who are intimately familiar with the situation inside Iraq understood this all too well. But inside the White House bubble, they were convinced their favored Iraqis would do very well in the election and lead the new government -- a game plan they have been trying to force on Iraq for more than two years.

Instead, the two secular blocs led by the Pentagon and neocon favorite, Ahmed Chalabi, and by the CIA-State Department choice, former Premier Ayad Allawi, got trounced. Even in Baghdad, where his appeal should be greatest, Allawi managed to get only 14 percent of the vote. Chalabi, who made a triumphant tour of Washington only a few weeks before the vote, may not even make it into the parliament. The game plan is in shreds.

American officials try to content themselves by pointing to the turnout of Sunnis who had boycotted the previous parliamentary vote last January. But as a senior intelligence community veteran explained it to me this past week, the decision of the Sunni leadership to promote voting -- and to order the insurgency to stand down for the day -- was hardly a sign that they had decided to abandon insurgency.

Rather, he explained, Sunni participation was a "lose-lose proposition." If the Sunni electoral bloc failed -- and many Sunnis passionately believe they constitute 50 percent rather than 20 percent of the population -- it would only reinforce the commitment to armed insurgency. And if they did well, it would create the political arm of the insurgency.

Indeed, as the election results are announced and it becomes clear that the Shiites will likely be able to form the new government on their own, or with the aid of some smaller groups, the Sunnis are crying foul. Sunni leaders, a combination of Baathists, Islamists and tribal leaders, claim the election was rigged.

"We will demand that the elections be held again," Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Sunni election front declared. "If this demand is not met, we will resort to other measures."
The American ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad -- the subject of a recent excellent profile in The New Yorker -- is doing his best to hold this shaky edifice together. He is pushing to form a government of national unity, bringing everyone into a new regime. This may be the only path to political legitimacy out of this election, but it is unlikely either the Shi'a or the Sunni leadership will take him up on the proposal.

If this fails, the United States will face an agonizing choice. I do not see how, after setting Iraq on the path to civil war, it can yet walk away from its responsibility. At the same time, however much they are needed, the continued presence of American troops ultimately undermines the legitimacy of the Iraqi government, whatever government is established.

In the meantime, ignore the Washington propaganda machine now spinning like a top on steroids, and lend your support to the men and women of our armed forces who are doing their best to make some sense out of a failed policy.

Daniel Sneider writes for the San Jose Mercury News and is a Pantech Fellow at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center. His e-mail address is dsneider@stanford.edu.

--------------------
The unknown enemy
--------------------

As Americans debate an exit strategy from Iraq, we still aren't sure of the size and power of the Sunni insurgency.

By Jonathan D. Tepperman
JONATHAN D. TEPPERMAN is deputy managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine.

December 26 2005

DESPITE THE recent elections in Iraq, which brought that country one step closer to full sovereignty and independence, attention in the United States remains firmly fixed on an issue closer to home: if and when Washington should pull out its troops.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&...=26&m=12&y=2005
Monday, 26, December, 2005 (25, Dhul Qa`dah, 1426)
Bush’s Policy Switch Points to Failure in Iraq
William Fisher, Arab News

After a thousand days of widely acknowledged failure in the job of rebuilding Iraq, the Department of Defense has quietly been relieved of that responsibility, with the State Department taking over as America’s lead reconstruction agency and coordinating the work of all other government departments.

While supporters of the policies of President George W. Bush dismiss the change as an administrative adjustment, others suggest it is symbolic of a decades-old turf battle between the two departments, and the administration’s increasing frustration with the reconstruction performance of the DOD and its contractors.

They also point to the switch as an example of how the president goes about making policy changes in Iraq: Exhorting the public to “stay the course” while changing it without fanfare.

Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, told us, “It’s a belated recognition that existing policy on reconstruction and stabilization has been woefully inadequate.”

The switch was made through a little-noticed Dec. 7 Presidential National Security Directive. Its objective is “to promote the security of the United States through improved coordination, planning, and implementation for reconstruction and stabilization assistance for foreign states and regions at risk of, in, or in transition from conflict or civil strife.”

The directive says, “The secretary of state shall coordinate and lead integrated United States government efforts”, coordinating these efforts with the secretary of defense to ensure harmonization with any planned or ongoing US military operations across the spectrum of conflict.”

It explains that to maximize the effectiveness of US rebuilding efforts, “a focal point is needed (I) to coordinate and strengthen efforts of the United States government to prepare, plan for, and conduct reconstruction and stabilization assistance and related activities in a range of situations that require the response capabilities of multiple United States government entities and (II) to harmonize such efforts with US military plans and operations.”

To achieve the objectives of the directive, the secretary of state will appoint a coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization with wide-ranging responsibilities.

These include “developing and approving strategies...for reconstruction and stabilization activities directed toward foreign states at risk of, in, or in transition from conflict or civil strife: Develop guiding precepts and implementation procedures for reconstruction and stabilization which, where appropriate, may be integrated with military contingency plans and doctrine; and coordinate reconstruction and stabilization activities and preventative strategies with foreign countries, international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, and private sector entities...(and) identify lessons learned and integrate them into operations.”

While reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been made far more difficult by security concerns, they have also been plagued by massive corruption, overcharging by many American contractors, lack of transparency and accountability in the contracting process, and confusion about lines of responsibility among US government agencies, and between the US and Iraqi governments.

The State Department has now been tasked to “resolve relevant policy, program, and funding disputes among United States government departments and agencies with respect to US foreign assistance and foreign economic cooperation, related to reconstruction and stabilization....”

The Bush directive, which is global in scope and not limited to Iraq and Afghanistan, also established a Policy Coordination Committee (PCC) for Reconstruction and Stabilization Operations. The PCC will be chaired by the coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization and a member of the National Security Council (NSC) staff.

The State Department will lead US government efforts to prevent countries at risk “from being used as a base of operations or safe haven for extremists, terrorists, organized crime groups, or others who pose a threat to US foreign policy, security, or economic interests.”

Problems with contractors and with financial management in general have dogged the DOD for many years. The agency’s contracting procedures have been widely condemned and, in one much-publicized case, the department’s most senior contracting official received a prison term for conflicts of interest and other offenses involving the Boeing Corporation, one of the largest military contractors. Other DOD contractors have also proved problematic; in particular, the Halliburton Company has been accused of substantial overcharges on many of its no-bid contracts and has become the poster child for a broken system.

Government accountants have never been able to complete a satisfactory audit of DOD expenditures.

Most recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that DOD contractors have received $8 billion over five years in bonuses on weapons programs that were often plagued by significant cost overruns, performance problems and delays.

The GAO, an independent auditor for Congress, reviewed 93 of 597 military contracts in force between 1999 and 2004 that included the possibility of a bonus. Contractors on average were awarded about 90 percent of the bonus money available, the agency said.

For example, Lockheed Martin and Boeing received $1.7 billion, or about 91 percent of $1.847 billion available on four major programs, including the Joint Strike Fighter, even as these programs “experienced significant cost increases, technical problems and development delays,” the GAO said.

The GAO report also cited the Boeing-United Technologies RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, canceled in April 2004, and two other Lockheed programs: The F/A-22 fighter and a satellite system to detect enemy missile launches.

Bonuses paid on these troubled programs ranged from 74 percent to 100 percent of the potential award, the agency said. “These practices undermine the effectiveness of fees as a motivational tool and marginalize their use in holding contractors accountable,” the audit agency said. “They also serve to waste taxpayer funds.”

THE FIGHT FOR IRAQ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1135591745...e_whats_news_us

Insurgents Kill 19 Across Iraq
As Violence Grows After Vote

Associated Press
December 26, 2005 2:52 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen shot and killed five police officers at a checkpoint north of Baghdad on Monday, and six vehicle bombs exploded in the capital, leaving another five people dead and wounding more than 40.

Preliminary results released Monday from ballots cast in early voting by expatriate Iraqis, soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners showed a coalition of Kurdish parties and the main Shiite religious bloc each taking about a third of the vote in the parliamentary elections.

THE FIGHT FOR IRAQ



See an interactive map showing the sites of major insurgent attacks, a tally of U.S. military deaths and complete coverage of the situation in Iraq.At least 19 people were killed across Iraq on Monday, a day after bloodshed claimed 18 lives, part of an increase in violence since a relative lull in attacks around the Dec. 15 vote.

A suicide car bomber slammed into a police patrol in the capital, leaving three dead, officials said, and a suicide motorcycle bomber rammed into a Shiite funeral ceremony, killing at least two people and wounding 26, said Maj. Falah Mohamadawi of the Interior Ministry.

Four other car bombs killed at least two people and wounded 15, officials said.

Gunmen killed five officers and wounded four at a police checkpoint 30 miles north of Baghdad, a morgue official in Baqouba said.

Partial results already released from voting in Iraq showed the United Iraqi Alliance, a religious Shiite coalition, with a large lead. Those results have been attacked by Sunni Arab and secular Shiite parties, which charge the election was tainted by fraud and other irregularities.

The Alliance, headed by the cleric Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, denies there was any fraud and is urging Iraqis to accept the results as it tries to form a "national unity" government drawing people from all communities.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a member of the Kurdish minority, sought to calm tensions Sunday, saying all factions will have a role in the new government.

The election complaints demonstrate the difficulty Iraqi parties will face in forming a government after final election results are released in early January. About 1,500 complaints have been lodged, including at least 35 that the Iraqi election commission said could be serious enough to change results in some areas.

The expatriate results released by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq showed the Kurdistan Coalition List with 36.5% of the vote and the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance winning 30%. Former Shiite Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular Iraqi National List garnered 11% and the main Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front took nearly 5%. Smaller parties split the remainder.

The IECI said that a total of 482,450 valid votes were cast in 15 countries and in polling stations set up on Dec. 12 for soldiers, patients and detainees. It added that 31,000 expatriate votes were being reviewed and said there were reports of fraud at three polling centers in Istanbul, Turkey. It did not say if the ballots in Turkey were among those under review.

There were 15 million eligible voters in Iraq, and 70% cast ballots in the Dec. 15 elections. The expatriate and early election votes will be added to a national total and help elect 45 of the parliament's 275 members.

Iraqis do not vote for individual candidates, but instead for lists -- or tickets -- that compete for seats in each of the 18 provinces. This province-by-province voting will determine 230 of the seats. The remaining 45 will be decided nationwide.

In Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, about 3,000 Shiites demonstrated in favor of the current government headed by outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, an Islamist Shiite loyal to the clergy. Demonstrators chanted: "No for terrorism, yes for Islam."

The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, meanwhile, denied reports it has asked the United Iraqi Alliance to give it 10 seats of the religious Shiite coalition's share in parliament.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko paid an unannounced one-day visit to Iraq on Monday amid the pullout of his country's remaining 867 troops, his office said. All are due home by Dec. 30.

Al Qaeda in Iraq posted a statement dated Sunday on an Islamic Web site, claiming it had killed four people who work at the Green Zone. Three were said to be Iraqi sisters. No other details were given and the statement's authenticity could not be verified.

In other violence:

• Gunmen raided a house in southern Baghdad on Monday, killing three people, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said. Gunmen attacked the house again when police arrived to remove the bodies, wounding two officers, police said.

• Gunmen in Baghdad killed a civilian driving his children to school and a professor in separate shootings, police and a hospital official said.

• Gunmen abducted a Sunni police colonel in Diyala province who was a member of a Sunni political list in the parliamentary elections, said a politician on the list, Dr. Abdulalh Al-Jubori. Also in Diyala, a car bomb targeted the governor, killing a body guard, and gunmen killed a member of Diyala city council, authorities said.

• Attackers blew up an oil pipeline south of Samara, 60 miles north of Baghdad, Sunday night, police Capt. Mohammed Hasan said. The pipeline has been a frequent target of insurgents, he said.


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HIGH | LOW (Player required)U.S. Troop Levels to Depend on Insurgency

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday that the number of U.S. troops remaining in Iraq in 2006 will be determined by the levels of insurgency as well as the capabilities of Iraqi forces, Gen. Peter Pace said the U.S. doesn't have a specific goal for troop numbers, but rather "off-ramps and on-ramps based on what we have on the ground."

"The enemy has a vote on this," Gen. Pace said on "Fox News Sunday." He said that if Americans were looking at a color-coded map of deployments next year, they'll "see the map and watch the colors change" as Iraqi battalions take over for U.S. forces. But he cautioned that the U.S. military needs to be flexible enough to increase forces to handle specific security problems that might arise.

Addressing U.S. troops in Fallujah on Friday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said President Bush authorized new cuts below the 138,000 level that has prevailed for most of this year. He didn't reveal the exact size of the troop cut, but Pentagon officials have said it could be as much as 7,000 combat troops. The Pentagon sent an extra 20,000 troops to Iraq to bolster security during the recent elections, and Mr. Rumsfeld has previously said those 20,000 would be withdrawn in January to return U.S. force levels to a 138,000 baseline. Friday's announcement marked the first time Mr. Rumsfeld has said troop levels will drop below that baseline.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said he was "quite sure" the number of U.S. troops in Iraq would decrease in 2006. "One, I don't think we can sustain this level of presence with the size force that we have," Mr. Powell said. "You can't keep sending them back over and over." Mr. Powell also said "we're well on our way" to building up the Iraqi military and police forces to take over for U.S. troops.

Gen. Pace said Sunday he was pleased that re-enlistment rates among troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan were "higher than in all the armed forces" as a whole. "They know what they're doing is appreciated by the Iraqis and the Afghan people." The Army exceeded its recruiting goal in November, the sixth consecutive on-target month, but it has fallen off the pace for meeting its re-enlistment goal for the year, the Pentagon has said.

No Handover of Prisons Until Higher Standards Seen

The U.S. military said Sunday it won't hand over detention facilities or individual detainees to Iraqi officials until they have demonstrated higher standards of care, two weeks after the discovery of 120 abused Iraqi prisoners. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman, said the facilities will be transferred over time but that the Iraqis must first demonstrate they are following international law and not violating detainees' human rights.

"A specific timeline for doing this is difficult to project at this stage with so many variables," Col. Johnson said, confirming a report in Sunday's New York Times. "The Iraqis are committed to doing this right and will not rush to failure. The transition will be based on meeting standards, not on a timeline."

Prisons have been one of the sore points between the Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni Arabs, a long-dominant minority that saw its power evaporate with Saddam Hussein's ouster. U.S. officials are pushing to heal the rift as a way to weaken support for the Sunni-led insurgency.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said earlier this month that at least 120 abused prisoners were found in two detention facilities run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry. Even before then, Sunni Arabs had complained about abuse and torture by Interior Ministry security forces. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr has said torture allegations have been exaggerated by people who sympathize with the Sunni-led insurgency. The Iraqi government and multinational forces are planning and coordinating for the Iraqis to take full control ultimately of detention facilities.

The U.S. Department of Justice is training Iraqi prison guards, Col. Johnson said, and about 300 Iraqis have already completed the course.

The U.S. command reported that two American soldiers were killed by bombs Sunday. No other details were immediately released, and it was not clear if they died in the same incident.

A suicide car bomber slammed into two Iraqi army vehicles in central Baghdad, killing five Iraqi soldiers and wounding seven police and civilians, police Maj. Mohammed Younis said. A second suicide car bomb targeting Iraqi police in Baghdad wounded four officers. Bombings and gun attacks killed at least 11 more people elsewhere in the capital, Kirkuk, Mosul and Jbala, authorities said.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press

Iraq Violence Leaves at Least 2 Dozen Dead Forbes
Violence increased across Iraq after a lull following the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, with at least two dozen people including a US soldier killed Monday in shootings and bombings mostly targeting the Shiite-dominated security services. The Defense Ministry director of operations, Brig. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammed-Jassim, blamed increased violence in the past two days on insurgents trying to deepen the political turmoil following the elections. The violence came as three Iraqi opposition groups threatened another wave of protests and civil disobedience if allegations of fraud are not properly investigated. The three blocs include the secular Iraqi National List, headed by former Shiite Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, and two Sunni Arab groups.
Iraq Violence Leaves at Least 2 Dozen Dead San Francisco Chronicle
Iraq Violence Leaves at Least 2 Dozen Dead ABC News
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