ยท A Sept. 5 Page One article incorrectly said that the Pentagon had recommended to President Bush that there be no further troop withdrawals from Iraq this year. The recommendation included the non-replacement of an 1,100-troop Marine battalion and a Marine aviation squadron scheduled to rotate out of Iraq this fall. The number of Army combat brigades would remain at 15 until early next year, when one brigade would depart the country without replacement.
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Pentagon Urges Extended Pause in Iraq Drawdown
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Under a bilateral security agreement being negotiated with the Iraqi government, U.S. combat troops would cease regular patrols in Iraqi cities and withdraw to bases by mid-2009, with a complete combat withdrawal from the country by some point during 2011.
But commanders consider the next several months to be crucial in consolidating security gains made over the past year. There is concern that violence may spike during provincial elections -- originally scheduled for this month but postponed after the failure of the Iraqi parliament to agree on a new electoral law. The legislature must pass the law by the end of this month if elections are to happen this year.
Passage of the law was stymied in part by disagreements among ethnic Kurds and other minorities about the unresolved status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Equally uncertain is what will happen with leaders of the "Special Groups" of Iranian-backed Shiite militias. U.S. officials said many of the leaders, who have vowed to continue combating U.S. forces in Iraq, fled to Iran after a spring Iraqi government crackdown against them in Baghdad and Basra. Their intentions, U.S. officials said, are unknown.
Military officials are also concerned about the 100,000-strong Sons of Iraq, the largely Sunni volunteer security force. Recruited in part from former insurgent groups that turned against the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, the volunteers have been paid from U.S. funds. The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said it would be responsible for the volunteers' salaries and would find jobs for them, but it has been slow to do so. In recent days, a number of volunteer leaders have been arrested, exacerbating sectarian tensions.
Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks contributed to this report.
