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Iraq News: Diyala, US Military Tribunals, Bush Reduces Length of Tours |
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The offensive in Diyala continues.
Officials said 35 wanted insurgents had been detained by the second day of the operation involving some 50,000 troops. Hot weather and the inhospitable terrain are making progress extremely difficult, military officials say.
House-to-house searches were currently focused on Baquba itself, but would be extended to rugged areas near the Iranian border, regional council head Ibrahim Bajilan said. The crackdown would take about two weeks “and then law will be imposed in all Diyala”, he said in an interview with AP news agency.Â
Four American soldiers will come before a military tribunal in Germany next month:
The charges stem from allegations that they were part of a unit that killed “male detainees of apparent Middle-Eastern descent” between March 10 and April 16, 2007, in and around Baghdad, the statement said.
It is alleged that each soldier “and members of his unit took male detainees to a canal and members of his unit did shoot the male detainees,” according to the charge sheet.
The Army did not elaborate further, but in an earlier statement said the allegations related to “the deaths of several detainees who were captured as part of combat operations last year.”
That statement, released in January, said that “preliminary findings indicate the deceased detainees were not persons detained in a detention facility.”
And Bush pledges to reduce tours in Iraq to twelve months, while hinting at coming withdrawals:
President Bush said Thursday that increasing stability in Iraq would very likely allow the withdrawal of more American forces there. He praised the growing capability of Iraq’s government and security forces and said that terrorists were on the brink of defeat.
The president’s remarks, made in an unusual early morning statement outside the Oval Office, were the clearest indication yet that he intended to begin reducing the number of American troops before leaving office in less than six months.
Mr. Bush said the United States was “also making progress†in negotiations on the long-term security agreement with the Iraqi government, which sets the terms for the presence of American troops in Iraq and is under intense scrutiny in both countries.
But he made no mention of a final agreement, despite some indications that Iraq and the United States were close to a deal, and with an unofficial deadline for the agreement expiring on Thursday.
A car bomb in Mosul kills three Iraqi policemen and wounds four others.
