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U.S. commander urges lower expectations in Iraq | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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The Iraqi national flag flutters amidst the crowds of Shiite pilgrims gathering outside Imam Hussein’s Shrine in the holy city of Karbala, 30 January 2007 (AFP)


The Iraqi national flag flutters amidst the crowds of Shiite pilgrims gathering outside Imam Hussein's Shrine in the holy city of Karbala, 30 January 2007 (AFP)

The Iraqi national flag flutters amidst the crowds of Shiite pilgrims gathering outside Imam Hussein’s Shrine in the holy city of Karbala, 30 January 2007 (AFP)

BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – The U.S. military reported three more combat deaths on Wednesday after the man tapped to take over command of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Americans may have to lower their expectations for Iraq.

“What we’ve been doing is not working,” Admiral William Fallon, nominated by President George W. Bush to become the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East, told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Bombers and gunmen killed 40 people in attacks on Shi’ite worshippers on Tuesday and a Sunni district of Baghdad came under attack from mortars that killed at least 17 people.

The U.S. military said two soldiers and a marine were killed on Tuesday in Anbar, a restive western province where they are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency.

The deaths on the final day of the annual week-long Ashura ritual, highpoint of the Shi’ite religious calendar, underlined widespread concerns about Iraq sliding into sectarian civil war.

On Wednesday, a suspected suicide bomber rammed a fuel truck into the main gate of an Iraqi army base in Miqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, wounding at least nine people, an army source said.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in sectarian bloodshed between Shi’ites and Sunnis since an attack on a Shi’ite mosque in Samarra in February 2006. More than 3,000 U.S. troops have died since the start of the war in March 2003.

As head of U.S. Central Command, Fallon would have overall responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He would oversee Bush’s plan to stabilise Iraq, announced this month, which involves the deployment of 21,500 extra U.S. troops. “I believe the situation in Iraq can be turned around, but time is short,” Fallon told the committee, meeting to consider his nomination. He sounded a note of caution when asked about the prospects of a democratic Iraq emerging from current levels of violence. “I think that we would probably be wise to temper our expectations here,” he said. “The likelihood that Iraq is suddenly going to turn into something that looks close to what we enjoy here in this country is going to be a long time coming.”

Security was tight this week for fear of a repetition of suicide bombings and other attacks on Ashura crowds of the sort that killed 171 people in Baghdad and the holy city of Kerbala in March 2004. This time Kerbala escaped incident, and the bombers appeared to have focused on less protected Iraqi towns.

Fearing a possible strike by Sunni insurgents, Iraqi authorities had deployed 11,000 police and soldiers to Kerbala, focus of the commemoration that marks the death in battle of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson 1,300 years ago.

The fears were fuelled by the discovery of what Iraqi officials said was a plot by a messianic Muslim cult to target senior Shi’ite clerics in the holy city of Najaf.

Iraqi forces backed by U.S. tanks and warplanes fought a day-long battle with the so-called “Soldiers of Heaven” near Najaf on Sunday. Officials said the cult’s leader was killed.

Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said on Tuesday the final toll from the battle was 263 killed. A total of 502 “Soldiers of Heaven” followers had been arrested.

People clean up after a car bomb blast in predominantly Shiite area in eastern Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2007 (AP)

People clean up after a car bomb blast in predominantly Shiite area in eastern Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2007 (AP)

Iraqi Shiite Muslims cook as part of Ashura ceremonies for Muharam, the commemoration of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein, at Kathemeya district in Baghdad on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 (EPA)

Iraqi Shiite Muslims cook as part of Ashura ceremonies for Muharam, the commemoration of Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein, at Kathemeya district in Baghdad on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 (EPA)