Commanders Plan Eventual Consolidation of U.S. Bases in Iraq

"We know, by phase, when we'll turn over or close which base," said Col. Mark W. Yenter, the senior engineer for Multinational Corps-Iraq. "This allows us to focus resources on those bases that will be here the longest."

According to Yenter and others working on the plan, the four bases were chosen to enable U.S. forces to maintain a foothold in various regions of Iraq. Centered around airfields to facilitate resupply operations and troop mobility, the four are Tallil in the south, Al Asad in the west, Balad in the center and either Irbil or Qayyarah in the north.

Each base is being designed to hold a brigade-size combat team plus aviation units and other support personnel. Initially referred to in planning documents as "enduring bases," the term was changed in February to "contingency operating bases."

"We didn't want to pick places that are too near Iraqi population centers, but we did want ones that would still allow us to influence an area and give us some power projection capability," said the general, who is involved in the planning and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In time, the officers said, all of these last strongholds are expected to have sharing arrangements with Iraqi units. One officer noted that Tallil already is used partly by the small Iraqi air force.

"At some point, you cross the middle line and end up with U.S. contingents on Iraqi bases instead of Iraqi units on U.S. bases," Yenter said.

This is not the first time U.S. commanders have drawn up plans to consolidate forces in Iraq. Early last year, before the insurgency strengthened, senior officers spoke of pulling troops out of urban centers and concentrating them in less obtrusive locations.

Particularly sensitive to the image of U.S. commanders and their staffs occupying elaborate palaces throughout Iraq that once belonged to former president Saddam Hussein, military leaders issued an order last August to prepare to vacate the palaces starting in March 2005. The order, which applied to palaces in Mosul, Tikrit, Ramadi, Basra and Baghdad, was rescinded in November after planners concluded that setting up replacement facilities would be too costly, officers said.

Under the new consolidation plan, three palaces will be turned over to the Iraqi government by the end of the year -- two in Tikrit and one in Mosul -- with more to follow later. The majority of other U.S.-occupied property is assigned to go eventually either to the Defense or Interior ministries. But the fate of a number of other bases has yet to be determined. U.S. planners are exploring options with other national government ministries as well as provincial and local governments.

"The issue with returning a lot of these facilities to the government of Iraq is whether the government is prepared to provide the security, the care and custody," said Maj. Noelle Briand, who heads a basing working group on the command staff. "My primary concern is that the government identifies the tenant that's going in and how it'll be able to provide for security."

Among the major unresolved issues is the future of the Camp Victory complex. Also unsettled is what will become of U.S.-run detention facilities, which currently hold more than 11,000 prisoners.

U.S. officers say plans for further base reductions have not yet been considered.

"Four is as far as we've gone down in our planning," Briand said.