Petraeus says Iraq 'central front'
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BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq remains "the central front" for al-Qaida and other extremist organizations, Gen. David Petraeus, the departing commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, said in an interview yesterday.
Gen. Petraeus acknowledged that extremist violence is rising in Afghanistan and Pakistan, battlegrounds he will soon oversee as the next head of the U.S. military's Central Command, but said, "It is still assessed that Iraq is still viewed as the central front, if you will, for al-Qaida and extremism of that flavor."
Gen. Petraeus oversaw the dramatic drop in violence in Iraq that began last summer as the Bush administration deployed 30,000 additional troops. "We have gone from being on the brink to being on the mend," he said in his office in the Green Zone. "A country that had lost hope has hope."
He said al-Qaida leaders remain keenly interested in keeping a foothold in Iraq because of its oil wealth and proximity to Gulf states where they have been shunned in recent years. He said al-Qaida in Iraq -- a largely homegrown organization that U.S. officials believe is led by Arabs from other countries -- had been severely weakened, but could regain strength.
Gen. Petraeus said the threats that al-Qaida and the Taliban "pose to Pakistan and Afghanistan are obviously very serious and, needless to say, the rise in the level of violence in Afghanistan is cause for significant concern." He added: "I'm not in the least contending that al-Qaida senior leadership is not located somewhere in the western border region of Pakistan."
Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was not a haven for al-Qaida, which found a footing in the country in the near-anarchy that followed the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Gen. Petraeus moves into his new job as the United States is starting to reduce its troop levels in Iraq. President Bush announced yesterday that 8,000 troops will be withdrawn from Iraq in the first weeks of 2009, and that additional forces will be sent to Afghanistan.
When extra troops arrived in Iraq last spring, "the level of violence was horrific," Gen. Petraeus said. "The fact was that the situation was out of control."
In the months after, the number of attacks on U.S. troops and the level of violence in general dropped steadily and dramatically, as tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers were stationed at small outposts in some of the most violent parts of the country. Sectarian violence, which had raged for more than a year, was sharply reduced during his tenure.
Gen. Petraeus said the extra troops and well-coordinated, intelligence-driven operations allowed U.S. troops to weaken Sunni and Shiite extremists and diminish their stature in the eyes of Iraqis.
The general said a smaller number of U.S. troops would remain at small outposts and that there are now 77 more small outposts than there were when the "surge" strategy was first implemented.
The general said the gains are not irreversible. "There are a number of what we call storm clouds on the horizon," he said.
He said recent intelligence reports suggest that Iranian-backed Shiite fighters who left the country in recent months to avoid a military confrontation with U.S. and Iraqi forces are considering returning to Iraq.
Political tension, particularly over disputed internal boundaries in northern Iraq, had the potential of "erupting into something more significant," the general said.
U.S. officials are also keeping a close eye on the handover to the Iraqi government of control over the so-called Sons of Iraq groups, paramilitary forces that have been on the U.S. payroll -- a process that is expected to start this fall. The Shiite-led government has expressed misgivings about absorbing members of the Sons of Iraq, who are largely Sunni, into its security forces.
First Published September 10, 2008 9:48 am
