US moves in 1,500 more troops for Iraq rebel region

BAGHDAD, May 30 (Reuters) Some 1,500 more US troops have arrived in Iraq to help with the war against Sunni Arab rebels, including al Qaeda Islamist militants, in the western desert province of Anbar, the military said today.

''Two battalion task forces of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division have moved into Iraq to assist in re-establishing the conditions necessary to enable effective local and provincial governance and providing additional security for the people of Al Anbar province,'' it said in a statement.

It said the 1,500 soldiers come from a ''call-forward'' reserve force based in Kuwait. A Pentagon spokesman said they would be based in Anbar province itself.

US commanders, the White House and the Iraqi government have spoken of hopes for some American troops to go home this year but say that will only happen as Iraqi forces are ready.

The Pentagon said the troops were on a ''short-term deployment'' and would take from 15 to 16 the number of US combat brigades in Iraq, but this did not raise the overall number of American troops, about 130,000, in the country.

Anbar remains the area most vulnerable to insurgent forces.

Residents of Anbar's provincial capital, Ramadi, say they have noticed increased US and Iraqi checkpoint and patrol activity in the city, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, and some families have quit the increasingly militarised city centre in fear of a major US offensive against the insurgents there.

''The situation in ... Anbar province is currently a challenge,'' spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing said in the statement. But she said it was not typical, pointing to the growing role of Iraqis in providing security elsewhere.

Al Qaeda-allied militants, led among others by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as well as nationalists loyal to Saddam Hussein's banned Baath party have found refuge in the desert wastes of Anbar since the US invasion three years ago.

US Marines have launched a series of offensives against rebel strongholds, notably in towns along the Euphrates River from the Syrian border to Falluja, where thousands of US troops crushed what had been an insurgent bastion 18 months ago.

VIOLENCE US commanders' hopes were raised over the past year by signs of growing disillusionment among the local Sunni Arab population with the rebels, especially with Islamists who have bloodily imposed Taliban-style rule on some towns at times.

Local people also voted in substantial numbers for the first time at December's parliamentary election and Sunni leaders are in the national unity government formed last week.

But the insurgents remain strong in places, despite repeated raids by some 20,000 Marines stretched across the region.

Many local people say they feel caught between the two and resent US tactics. They also accuse the US troops of killing civilians, as at Haditha in November where the military is investigating the deaths of 24 men, women and children.

People in Ramadi said about 50 families -- around 300 people -- have already abandoned streets and alleys in the city centre where Sunni Arab rebels open fire on US patrols.

There have been no public suggestions from the US military that a large-scale offensive is expected.

But Iraqis are not taking any chances. Clashes have prompted some residents to take refuge in schools on the outskirts.

''We cannot stay any more. US forces have segmented the city and put snipers on high buildings,'' said one man, Abu Omar, 45, who has turned the Rumaila school on the outskirts of the city into a residence for his wife and five children.

REUTERS CH RK2125