- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- U.S.
forces in Iraq began scaling down their presence inside Baghdad with the
arrival of fresh troops who are mostly moving into bases on the city's
outskirts, a top U.S. commander said Monday.
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- Brigadier General Mark Hertling, assistant commander
of the departing 1st Armored Division said the arriving 1st Cavalry Division
is moving into eight bases around Baghdad, with one in the center. It is
a contrast to the 26 bases in the city now and down from as many as 60
last summer just after the Iraq war.
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- The United States has said it is shifting its troop presence
to Baghdad's perimeter to ease newly trained Iraqi police officers and
Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers into their eventual role as the capital's
guardians.
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- "This is in conjunction with the stand-up of the
ICDC and an improvements in the number of Iraqi police available in Baghdad,"
Hertling told reporters, but added there was no firm deadline for a complete
turnover of Baghdad security to Iraqis.
-
- "If you're asking me for a set date, there is none,"
he said. "Some of the regions within Baghdad will go faster than others."
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- The eight bases on the outskirts of Baghdad will house
between 25,000 and 30,000 troops, and will be the only U.S. presence in
Baghdad after the 1st Cavalry assumes command on April 15, Hertling said.
-
- He said training for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corp is
all but complete, and about 1,000 police are being trained a month.
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- The 1st Cavalry Division will have a slightly larger
area of operations, encompassing Baghdad and its suburbs. The 1st Armored
Division was only in charge of the city.
-
- Besides handing more authority to the Iraqi forces, the
U.S. has said it wants its presence to be less of an impediment to daily
life in a congested city.
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- Colonel Mike Formica, commander of the first unit to
arrive from the 1st Cavalry from its home base at Fort Hood, Texas, said
his troops have been shifted out of tanks into armored Humvees to better
patrol city streets.
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- "We'll be much more mobile and much less intrusive
in these neighborhoods," Formica said. "So we won't have 70-tontanks
running through neighborhoods, destroying infrastructure we're trying so
hard to rebuild."
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- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4314103
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