General wants additional troops

WASHINGTON --The top US commander in Iraq has requested another Army brigade, on top of five already on the way, as part of the controversial "surge" of American troops designed to clamp down on sectarian violence and insurgent groups, senior Pentagon officials said today.

The appeal -- not yet made public -- by Gen. David Petraeus for a combat aviation unit would involve between 2,500 and 3,000 more soldiers and dozens of transport helicopters and powerful gunships, said the Pentagon sources. That would bring the planned expansion of US forces so far to close to 30,000 troops.

News of the additional deployment comes about a week after President Bush announced that about 4,700 support troops will join the initial 21,500 he ordered in January. They are in addition to the estimated 130,000 troops already in Iraq.

"This is the next shoe to drop," said one senior Pentagon official closely involved in the war planning. "But you cannot put five combat brigades in there and not have more aviation guys, military police, and intelligence units."

The additional troops designated for the surge strategy are expected to be in Baghdad and western Anbar province by May.

But even supporters of the stepped-up US commitment in Iraq criticized the Bush administration for not being more straightforward up front about how troops the surge strategy might require.

"There is a problem in the way the administration reported the surge numbers to begin with," said Frederick W. Kagan, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "When they initially reported the numbers they only reported the combat strength of the brigades and they did not count support troops" and other personnel that the operation would need.

"Petraeus has now requested what many thought would be needed to begin with," Kagan said. "But it looks like another surge."

The plan for the aviation brigade comes as commanders express cautious optimism that US and Iraqi forces, working together, are bringing down the violence in the city and building some much-needed goodwill among the population.

Though only a portion of the surge force is in Iraq, military spokesmen in Baghdad have already reported that the number of sectarian killings and insurgent attacks have dropped significantly in the four weeks since US and Iraqi troops began to move into neighborhoods plagued by militias and criminal gangs.

Qassim al-Mousawi, a high-ranking Iraqi military spokesman, said Wednesday that since the stepped-up security plan began in mid-February there have been 102 bombings in the capital, compared to 163 during the previous four weeks. The number of car bombs also dropped from 56 to 36 during that same time frame, he told reporters in Baghdad.

But news that Petraeus wants several thousand more troops is bound to further frustrate the new Democratic majority in Congress, which is intent on pressuring President Bush to start bringing US troops home within months.

For the second day, the Senate debated a resolution that would require President Bush to begin a phased withdrawal of US troops within 120 days. The resolution failed to garner enough votes to pass, but Democratic leaders have pledged to use their power to force the White House's hand, including placing limitations on federal funds for the war.

"The American people are demanding that we change the direction of the President’s perilous path," Sen. Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said after the vote. "Republicans can only defy their will for so long."

Indeed, the House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to approve a provision in a $124 billion war spending bill calling for US troops to leave Iraq by September 2008 if the fledgling Iraqi government fails to meet a series of benchmarks.

Despite the congressional opposition, the number of US troops committed to Iraq has steadily grown since Bush decided to send the 21,500 troops -- the equivalent of five Army brigades and two Marine Corps battalions.

The Congressional Budget Office predicted last month the total surge could ultimately double in size and cost, once all support troops are in place.

The Pentagon said the CBO estimates were far too high, but the surge has nonetheless continued to expand. Last weekend, Bush asked Congress for more money to support the 4,600 support troops, including 2,200 military police officers and other personnel.

"This revised request would better align resources based on the assessment of military commanders," Bush wrote in a letter to Congress seeking an extra $3.2 billion to fund additional troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The aviation brigade Petraeus wants is likely to come from the Army's Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., which would accelerate its plans to return to Iraq, said another Pentagon official who asked not to be identified discussing internal planning. The division was scheduled to go back before the White House adopted the surge plan.

The new unit would bring to four the total number of aviation brigades in Iraq. The official said American commanders would have to re-assess in a few months whether they want to keep the higher number; if so, they would have to identify another brigade to relieve one of them.

Military strategists consider the aviation unit an "enabler," meaning it will help the additional combat troops that are spearheading the new Baghdad security plan and operations to secure several cities in Anbar province where Sunni insurgents and followers of Al Qaeda have gained a foothold.

In Baghdad, the new strategy calls for establishing 40 Joint Security stations to build trust and confidence with the local population. In Anbar, the additional Marines will "consolidate recent gains against [Al Qaeda in Iraq] network," according to the Pentagon's latest quarterly Iraq security report to Congress.

"Anytime you deploy more combat forces you need more support forces," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution who compiles the Iraq Index. "You need some tactical mobility to get them out of trouble."

Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com