Rumsfeld Announces Troop Cuts in Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld mingles with troops in Fallujah on a day when two U.S. soldiers and at least 17 Iraqis died in insurgent attacks. (Pool Photo By Jim Young Via Getty Images)

Rumsfeld first announced the realignment in a speech to Marines Friday morning in the western city of Fallujah, where U.S. forces conducted a broad offensive against insurgents late last year.

Later Friday, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters that he hoped for a further reduction of forces in the spring.

"In this type of war that we're fighting, more is not necessarily better," Casey said. "In fact, in Iraq, less coalition [troops], at this point in time, is better. Less is better because it doesn't feed the notion of occupation. . . . It doesn't lengthen the time for the Iraqis to be self-reliant, and it doesn't expose coalition forces to risk when there are Iraqi forces that are capable of standing up and doing it."

Casey called the deployment of one brigade to Kuwait "a hedge against the uncertainty of the next few months." He said with units rotating in and out of the country, the new troop level of about 130,000 would not be reached until March.

Opinion polls have shown that a vast majority of Iraqis support reducing the U.S. presence here. Jafari, the prime minister, said the decision to do so should be seen as a message to the Iraqi people that Iraq's security forces are ready "to fill the gap left by the multinational forces" and to insurgents that "there is no room for terrorism in Iraq."

Also Friday, the court trying Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants issued a statement objecting to the recent release by U.S. officials of former members of Hussein's government held since capture soon after the 2003 invasion.

The U.S. military this week announced the release of eight captives, including two figures long alleged to have been leaders of Iraq's biological weapons programs: Rihab Rashid Taha Azawi, known in the media as "Dr. Germ," and Huda Salih Ammash, dubbed "Mrs. Anthrax." A lawyer said at least 16 others had been released with them.

The statement said the tribunal held warrants for their arrest and "will continue taking judicial measures" to return them to custody.

During his briefing, Casey said that because "there was no evidence that caused us to continue to detain them," the military was "bound by international law" to release them." The tribunal had been given time to provide additional evidence but had not done so, Casey said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, in Balad Ruz, 65 miles northeast of Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque, killing 10 people and wounding four others.

"I was only about 100 meters away when I heard the explosion," said Ali Abdul Kareem Jassam, 45. "I saw bodies strewn around, people bleeding and a lot of destruction. I helped the others to collect body parts inside the mosque."

In Udhaim, north of Baghdad, 25 insurgents in five vehicles waged an hour-long gun battle with police at a highway checkpoint, killing eight, according to police Lt. Hasan Ali Ibrahim.

Staff writer Josh White in Washington and special correspondents Hassan Shammari in Baqubah and K.I. Ibrahim and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad contributed to this report.