More U.S. Troops May Be Iraq-Bound

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, front right, whose militia is accused of killing Sunnis, prays with followers in Najaf. "I totally reject any Shiite-Shiite fighting or Sunni-Shiite sectarian fighting in Iraq under any pretext," he said. (By Alaa Al-marjani -- Associated Press)

"Now, do we need more troops to do that? Maybe."

It is not clear whether Iraqi or U.S. forces in Iraq, which already are stretched thin, could provide substantially more troops for duty in the capital, however.

American commanders have complained, usually privately, that the Iraqi government has failed to provide many of the Iraqi troops they requested earlier to try to stabilize Baghdad. In September, commanders had a weeks-old request for 3,000 more Iraqi troops for the capital; only a few hundred arrived, Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, the U.S. commander for Baghdad, said last month. Some Iraqi battalions have mutinied rather than answer orders to deploy to Baghdad.

U.S. commanders moved at least 6,000 more American troops to Baghdad over the summer for Operation Together Forward, an effort to arrest the violence in the capital. To get those extra troops, commanders had to take the unpopular step of extending one unit's deployment just as it was going home to its base in Alaska, as well as calling in emergency reserves based in Kuwait.

In all, about 15,000 American troops and 9,000 Iraqi soldiers are now deployed in Baghdad for the special security operation.

Despite the concentration of efforts in the capital, violence here has climbed more than 43 percent since midsummer. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the top U.S. spokesman in Iraq, said last week that attacks had climbed 22 percent in the first two weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began in late September, compared with the preceding two weeks.

The toll is highest among Iraqi civilians. More than 2,660 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad last month alone, the highest such figure for the war. The average daily number of attacks on Iraqi security forces is also at a high, the U.S. Defense Department said in a report in late August.

Casey said U.S. and Iraqi authorities would adjust their Baghdad military plan to combat the rising attacks. He declined to give specifics.

Iraqis and Americans here face "a difficult situation, and it's likely to remain that way over the near term," Khalilzad said.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders were adjusting political goals in Iraq as well, Khalilzad said, to cope with a conflict that has expanded from an insurgency alone to an insurgency increasingly overshadowed by sectarian violence.

Khalilzad said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had agreed to timelines for accomplishing several specific goals, including developing a plan to deal with militias and reforming Iraq's Interior Ministry by the end of the year.

Militias connected to the Shiite religious parties that lead Iraq's government are accused by U.S. officials, Iraqi Sunnis and others of being lead players in increasingly brazen attacks on Sunnis. In the south, where Sunnis are few, Shiite militias fight each other.