US general sees Anbar fight secondary to Baghdad

WASHINGTON, Sep 15 (Reuters) The effort to subdue Sunni insurgents in Anbar province, long a focus of the Iraq war, has become secondary to the ''main effort'' -- securing Baghdad to avert civil war, a senior US commander said today.

Army Lt Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the No. 2 US general in Iraq and the top operational commander, said a classified intelligence report that surfaced this week with a dire account of the situation in Anbar was ''right on target.'' But Chiarelli acknowledged that commanders have siphoned troops from Anbar, weakening the military's strength there, to bulk up the US presence in Baghdad. Commanders are seeking to curb unrelenting sectarian violence in Baghdad that pits majority Shi'ite Muslims against minority Sunnis who dominated Iraq for decades under deposed President Saddam Hussein.

''Baghdad is our main effort right now,'' Chiarelli told reporters at the Pentagon in a briefing from Iraq.

On Anbar province, Chiarelli said ''we are not looking to walk away from that province,'' but made it clear that the effort to secure Baghdad was paramount. Anbar is a vast western desert considered the Sunni Muslim insurgency's heartland.

The intelligence report by Col. Peter Devlin, according to published reports, concluded the situation in Anbar is grim and will deteriorate without an infusion of US troops and aid.

Chiarelli acknowledged that Devlin recommended adding a full division -- roughly 15,000 troops -- to the roughly 30,000 US troops now in the province.

''There's not a commander in the world who wouldn't say he could use more forces. But I believe we have the forces that we need in al Anbar, understanding that al Anbar today is a supporting effort to what we're doing in Baghdad,'' Chiarelli said.

He described Baghdad as ''a city the size of Chicago where we're trying to knock down sectarian violence and go after those folks, those death squads, that have caused this new form of violence that, if left unchecked, could lead to civil war.'' There are currently 147,00 US troops in Iraq.

REUTERS SAM VC2332