Insurgents fired rockets or mortars Tuesday at the sprawling garrison that houses the headquarters of American forces in Iraq, killing one person and wounding 11 coalition soldiers, the U.S. command said.
The command said the person killed was a “third-country national,” meaning someone who is not an American or Iraqi. Most troops stationed at Camp Victory are American, but other coalition soldiers are based at the complex near Baghdad International Airport. No further details on the attack were immediately released.
The attack occurred as U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, testified before Congress for a second day on the situation in Iraq since President Bush’s decision to send 30,000 reinforcements to stem sectarian violence.
Petraeus recommended keeping the bulk of U.S. forces in Iraq through next summer. The Iraqi government welcomed Petraeus’ recommendation, giving assurances that the need for U.S. military support would decrease over time.
National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie, reading from a government statement, said the Iraqis believe that “in the near future” the need for U.S. and other coalition forces “will decrease.”
“The aim of the Iraqi government is to achieve self-reliance in security as soon as possible, but we still need the support of coalition forces to reach this point,” cautioned al-Rubaie, who in the past has often given rosy pictures of Iraq’s capabilities.
Other politicians charged that Petraeus and Crocker tailored their testimony to impress an American audience and persuade Congress to give them more time, even as Iraqis have become convinced that Nouri al-Maliki’s government would be unable to resolve Iraq’s political rivalries.
“Their description really is deficient,” said Alaa Makki, a leading member of the Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni group that withdrew its ministers from al-Maliki’s Cabinet over the summer. “It’s really as if they ignored the failure of the Maliki government to achieve reconciliation and to achieve the goals we agreed to when we agreed on a national unity government.”
Perhaps one of the few political leaders in Baghdad who did not watch the hearings was Ayad Allawi, the former interim prime minister whose U.S.-backed administration was in power from June 2004 until April 2005. Allawi, a secularist who says al-Maliki’s leadership bears much of the blame for the sectarian violence in Iraq, said he had no reason to listen to the testimony.
“There is nothing new that it was going to tell us,” said Allawi, whose Iraqi National Accord holds 22 seats in the parliament. “What’s going on here is not that good: sectarianism, violence, no institutions, services almost totally halted.”
A handful of Iraqis interviewed reflected mixed emotions toward the U.S. presence: that it is an unwelcome force but one that is preventing chaos in many parts of the country.
“The Americans are and will remain occupiers and hated,” said Abu Jabir, a receptionist at a Baghdad hospital. Jabir, expressing a thought heard frequently among Iraqis from all backgrounds, said the U.S. invasion in March 2003 had done a good thing in overthrowing the regime of Saddam Hussein. But he said the occupation had planted the seeds of sectarianism and that it was time for U.S. troops to become less visible so that Iraqis can begin taking charge.
“A quick American pullout is not good, as civil war may flare,” he said. “I think they should stay, but avoid the streets. Yes, we want them, but only as a backup and cover for our security.”
