US general: Impact of Iraq violence still unclear

The U.S. Army's top general said yesterday that it was too early to tell whether a recent spike in violence in Iraq that has killed hundreds will have an impact on the pace that Washington withdraws its troops.

Bombings since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi cities on June 30 have raised questions about whether the country's security forces are capable of protecting the population. The issue is particularly sensitive for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a key U.S. ally who has tied his success to the general improvement in security over the past two years.

Gen. George Casey, the U.S. Army chief of staff, said he expected the security situation in Iraq to continue to "ebb and flow" over the next months and years.

"It is way too early to make any judgments of the impact of some of the recent bombings on the long-term strategy," said Casey during a brief visit to Kuwait's Shuaiba port, which will play a key role in the withdrawal of U.S. forces from neighboring Iraq.

The most deadly recent attack was a string of coordinated bombings last week against government ministries in Baghdad that claimed about 100 lives. There have also been horrific bombings in August by insurgents in northern Iraq hoping to stoke an Arab-Kurdish conflict.

Despite the spike in violence, Casey said the U.S. military is pushing ahead with its schedule to draw down the 130,000 American troops currently in Iraq.

President Barack Obama has decided to remove all combat troops by the end of August 2010, and must withdraw all troops by the end of 2011 according to a U.S.-Iraqi security pact. The agreement was also the reason for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraqi cities by the end of June.

Thousands of mourners marched through Baghdad behind the coffin of one of the country's most powerful Shiite leaders yesterday, and eulogies from rivals and allies reflected deep worry over the political void left by his death.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's death from lung cancer at 59 comes at a time of disarray among Iraqi Shiites. Just this week, his party formed a new political grouping to contest January's parliamentary elections that excludes the Iraqi prime minister, setting up a showdown between the two former allies.

Iraq is holding parliamentary elections on Jan. 16 in which competition over the Shiite vote will be stiff because of a split among Shiite parties.

Al-Hakim was a symbol for many of the re-emergence of Iraq's Shiite political majority after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime. He worked with Americans after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion even while maintaining his ties to Iran, where he lived in exile for 20 years.