Washington – With the final troops in President Bush’s buildup flowing into Iraq, the U.S. military commander overseeing much of the north-central part of the country said Friday that he doesn’t have enough troops for the mission in restive Diyala province in the east.
Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said he has asked Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, for more troops to help pacify the increasingly violent al-Qaeda hotbed northeast of Baghdad.
“I do not have enough soldiers right now in Diyala province to get that security situation moving,” Mixon said. “We have plans to put additional forces in that region.”
Mixon, who spoke to Pentagon reporters through a video conference from a U.S. base in the northern city of Tikrit, would not say how many more troops he needs. But he said he recently proposed a plan to Odierno to bolster troop levels. He said Odierno told him that additional troops would be deployed to Diyala as they become available.
“I believe once we see those plans through, that the situation in Diyala will get to the level that we want it to get to, and that’s when the Iraqi security forces can begin to take responsibility for the security in that area,” said Mixon, who commands a large swath of northern Iraq, including Diyala.
The general’s remarks came as the U.S. military faces increased scrutiny from congressional Democrats over whether the so-called surge of nearly 30,000 more U.S. troops in Iraq is having any significant effect. Gen. David Petraeus has promised to report to Congress in September on how the security plan is working.
Mixon would not comment directly on whether he thought the troop increase would be needed into next year, as some commanders have predicted, but he warned against a quick pullout.
“You know, we just can’t think about pulling out of here just like that,” he said. “We need to have a long-term commitment in some form or fashion to ensure security in the region.”
Violence in Diyala increasing
Diyala, which has long been a hotbed of al-Qaeda activity, has only seen more violence since Bush announced in January that he would send more troops to Iraq, primarily to Baghdad and the western Anbar province. Mixon currently has about 3,500 troops in Diyala.
The past week has been particularly difficult in Diyala. The U.S. military announced Friday that an American soldier was killed Thursday in an explosion in the province. On Tuesday a U.S. soldier was killed and four others were wounded in a shooting attack there. And six U.S. soldiers and an embedded Russian journalist were killed May 6 when a massive bomb struck the vehicle they were traveling in.
The increase in violence has been spurred by a recent increase in the U.S. military’s operational tempo but is also the result of insurgents in Baghdad melting into Diyala as more U.S. troops are deployed to the capital, Mixon said.
He was also critical of the provincial and national governments, saying the Iraqis have proved to be largely ineffective.
He said the government has been too slow in providing necessary logistical support to security. The poor performance has worsened the security situation.
The general said he was particularly concerned about the ability of Iraqi security forces to protect vital oil pipelines that snake across his area of operation.
“Results in these particular organizations have been marginal, at best, since my arrival,” Mixon said. “Our efforts to train and build capacity for them is limited, and the national ministries must step up and do their job so that Iraqis can have basic services at the grassroots level.”
