US general sees Iraq forces getting more territory

WASHINGTON, Mar 17 (Reuters) Iraqi security forces will control about 75 per cent of Iraq by the end of summer, up from under 50 per cent now, a senior US commander said today, as the United States turns over more responsibilities to allow a reduction of its forces.

The development of capable, US-trained Iraqi government security forces is a crucial element of US plans in Iraq, which call for Iraqi forces to assume control over more and more territory, enabling the United States to draw down from its current 133,000 troops.

Army Lt Gen Peter Chiarelli, the No 2 US commander in Iraq, said the plan was for Iraqi forces, who currently number about 240,000, to control about 75 per cent of Iraq's territory by ''the end of summer.'' Chiarelli gave a more ambitious timetable than did President George W Bush in a speech on Monday in which Bush said Iraqi forces would control a majority of Iraq by the end of 2006.

Chiarelli, head of the Multinational Corps-Iraq and top day-to-day operational commander, declined to be more specific on the time line. He did not specify the actual territory involved or say whether it included the Sunni-dominated areas that are the epicenter of a bloody insurgency.

Chiarelli said Iraqi forces now controlled ''somewhere under 50 percent'' of Iraq.

''I think that all indications are we will make that,'' he told reporters at the Pentagon by teleconference from Iraq, referring to the plan for Iraqi forces to control three-quarters of Iraq by late summer. ''But again, I don't want to be so precise as to put myself into a box.'' WAR WORRIES Chiarelli's forecast came amid rising worry among Americans in opinion polls about the war, which has helped drive down Bush's public approval ratings.

In his Monday speech, Bush said, ''As more capable Iraqi police and soldiers come on line, they will assume responsibility for more territory -- with the goal of having the Iraqis control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006.'' Bush said as Iraqis take over more territory, US forces would be freed up to focus on training Iraqi forces and hunting down fugitives such as al Qaeda's Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ''As Iraqis stand up, America and our coalition will stand down.'' Chiarelli praised the Iraqi army's performance in responding to sectarian violence after the February 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of Iraq's four holiest Shi'ite shrines. US officials have offered more guarded assessments of Iraqi police.

Questions remain about the ability of Iraqi forces to operate independently from US forces and about their loyalties and degree of insurgent infiltration.

Chiarelli said Iraq appeared closer now to a civil war than at any time since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

''The possibility of civil war may be higher today than it has been in the last three years, yet I believe we are still far away from such an event,'' Chiarelli added.

Chiarelli argued the degree of recent sectarian violence has been exaggerated in news reports. He said such violence increased immediately after the Samarra bombing but has ''tapered off.'' He said he believed some recent attacks were conducted by Zarqawi's al Qaeda affiliate ''to make it look like it's sectarian,'' in a country with tensions between its Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.

''There's no doubt in my mind there's retribution being taken by both sides, by groups of individuals. Some of them may be militias, some of them just may be angry young men who go out and conduct some of these horrible attacks. And I in no way want to downplay this violence,'' Chiarelli said.

REUTERS VJ RAI0040