Just two days earlier a top U.S. general said that a two-month operation by 15,000 U.S. troops had failed to stem a spike in killings resulting from factional fighting among bourgeois forces vying for a bigger share of power.

Nearly 2,800 U.S. troops have been killed in the war since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to the Pentagon, as well as some 120 British soldiers. Total “coalition” deaths exceed 3,000. The estimated death toll among Iraqis, civilian and military, is much higher, exceeding 14,000 this year alone, according to press reports, with nearly half occurring in August and September.

In another development, the Iraqi parliament approved a controversial “federalism” law October 11 that will allow provinces to join together and form autonomous regions. The law is not to be implemented for 18 months.

The measure was approved by a slim margin, with 140 of the 275 members of parliament voting for it. Members of parliament loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and Fadhila, a split-off from al-Sadr’s movement, joined wealthy Sunnis in boycotting the vote. A bloc of Shiite and Kurdish parties hold a majority in Iraq’s coalition government.

Al-Sadr’s supporters fought fierce battles with U.S. troops in southern Iraq in 2004. His movement is now part of the ruling Shiite bloc, known as the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), and heads several ministries in the U.S.-backed regime.

A regional government in southern Iraq would be dominated by al-Sadr’s Shiite rivals, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and al-Dawah, the two largest parties in the UIA. The rivalry between al-Sadr and SCIRI burst into open fighting October 19-20, when 200-300 of Sadr’s Mahdi militia attacked two police stations in Amarah, southern Iraq. The police there are said to be aligned with the Badr Brigade, a SCIRI militia.

Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, said October 11 the Army plans to maintain current U.S. troop levels in Iraq, now at 138,000, “to have enough ammo in the magazine that I can continue to shoot as long as they want us to shoot.”

The day after his remarks, Australian premier John Howard said Canberra, with 900 troops in Iraq, would stand with Washington and not “cut and run.”

UK’s top military officer, Gen. Richard Dannatt, “clarified” remarks he had made that the 7,000 British troops should withdraw from Iraq so metime soon. “We are not on the run; we are not hauling our colors down,” he said.  
 
 
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