As the US pledged to hand power to Iraqis faster, the Pentagon said yesterday that did not mean pulling out troops before they crushed guerrillas who fight on, seven months after the fall of former president Saddam Hussein.
"There is no decision to pull out early. Indeed quite the contrary," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said while the US occupying forces launched new "Iron Hammer" strikes on suspected resistance positions around Baghdad.
"We will stay there as long as necessary," he told troops in the Pacific.
PHOTO: REUTERS
He denied Washington and its allies were in trouble after a particularly bloody few weeks in Iraq and insisted they were winning, despite an increasing number of guerrilla attacks.
Arriving in Japan, which is suffering cold feet about sending troops to Iraq after a bomb killed 18 Italians on Wednesday, Rumsfeld met Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. He is also due in South Korea, which is reviewing its offer of troops.
Rumsfeld was expected to press Washington's case to its allies for help in stabilizing Iraq to relieve the military and financial burden on the US as President George W. Bush seeks re-election a year from now.
Opinion polls show declining support among American voters for the occupation and growing disillusionment about the way the March invasion has turned out. Bush said on Thursday he wanted to "encourage the Iraqis to assume more responsibility."
US officials have not spelled out how this will be done, saying Iraq administrator Paul Bremer would discuss details with the Iraqi Governing Council on his return to Baghdad after this week's urgent consultations in Washington.
Postwar attacks that have killed 156 US soldiers, along with suicide bombings like Wednesday's assault on an Italian military base, have prompted what US General John Abizaid calls a "sense of urgency" about military efforts in Iraq.
The US military disclosed that Abizaid, leading those efforts, was planning to move back to the Gulf state of Qatar from Central Command headquarters in Florida.
In a fresh guerrilla attack, a roadside blast wounded two American soldiers in southern Baghdad yesterday morning.
Heavy gunfire and explosions had echoed across Baghdad during the night as US forces pursued Operation Iron Hammer against suspected guerrilla targets for a second day.
US forces destroyed a former Republican Guard building they said resistance fighters used to launch attacks and struck more suspected mortar and rocket-launch sites.
A missile fired from a AC-130 Spectre gunship flattened part of the building, leaving a tangle of metal and debris.
"Our unit has been taking fire from this building for several days so that's why we attacked," a US officer on the scene said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS