World

Rummy Revisits Iraq

December 7, 2003 / 9:32 AM EST / CBS/AP

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk Saturday to gauge the pace of progress toward stabilizing the country and defeating the insurgency.

The trip was kept secret in advance to minimize the risk of attack on his entourage, which flew here on an Air Force C-17 cargo plane from Tblisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

It was Rumsfeld's second trip to Iraq in four months, reflecting the Bush administration's push for faster progress toward improving security and speeding the political transition to Iraqi control, as well as an effort by the Pentagon to boost U.S. troop morale.

The trip also marked the first time Rumsfeld has visited Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields.

Rumsfeld later flew to Baghdad, where he was met at Baghdad International Airport by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of all coalition forces in Iraq.

In other developments:

Four U.S. Army divisions -- 40 percent of the active-duty force -- will not be fully combat-ready for up to six months next year, leaving the nation with relatively few ready troops in the event of a major conflict in North Korea or elsewhere, a senior Army told reporters Friday in a Pentagon briefing. The briefing was cited by The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times on Saturday. The Times says the army hasn't allowed so many of its units to fall to such low readiness levels since the all-volunteer military was established in 1973. The Post says the four divisions are to return from Iraq next spring, to be replaced by three others, with a fourth rotating into Afghanistan. That would leave only two active-duty divisions available to fight in other parts of the world, as vehicles and helicopters from the four divisions that won't be combat-ready are overhauled and their troops are rested and retrained.

Iraqis have added AIDS to the long list of concerns they have about life in the post-Saddam Hussein era, says CBS News Reporter Lisa Barron, in Baghdad. Many residents of the capital say they fear the large number of foreigners coming into the country -- from security guards and journalists to diplomats and aid workers -- could cause infectious diseases such as AIDS to spread to the local population.

A funeral in Samarra for two Iraqis killed in a firefight with U.S. troops this week turned violent Saturday, with mourners killing an Iraqi paramilitary security officer and chanting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans over his body.

Further north, in the city of Mosul, three gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi policeman on his way to work Saturday, police said. The victim was a 24-year-old recent graduate of a police academy that has received support and guidance from coalition forces. Guerrillas have often targeted Iraqi police and other authorities, accusing them of collaborating with the U.S.-led occupation.

In the northern province of Nineva, of which Mosul is the capital, U.S. troops captured 16 people, 10 of whom allegedly were planning attacks against coalition forces, the U.S. military said. The other six included a weapons dealer and black-market merchants, said Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler.

Rumsfeld began his day in Kirkuk by having breakfast with a group of soldiers who participated in recent raids in the area and with Air Force personnel who helped destroy captured Iraqi explosives.

Afterward, he received a detailed briefing on military operations in the area from Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, which is responsible for security operations in much of the area north and west of Baghdad known as the Sunni Triangle, where anti-occupation violence has been the greatest.

With reporters looking on, Odierno said attacks have declined significantly in the last three weeks, averaging six per day compared with 21 daily before that.

At the same time, he said, acceptance of American troops by the Iraqi populace is increasing. "It improves, every month it gets better," the general said.

In an interview, Odierno said improved intelligence had enabled his soldiers to find and capture more of the people involved in the attacks against American forces in recent weeks.

"We've picked up some very key people," including Iraqis believed to be responsible for making homemade bombs and financing insurgency operations, Odierno said.

In Baghdad, Sanchez said in an interview with reporters traveling with Rumsfeld that U.S. intelligence has "not established conclusively" that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is personally directing he insurgency.

But Sanchez said it is believed that Saddam remains alive somewhere in Iraq.

Rumsfeld and Sanchez flew together in a Black Hawk helicopter to an outpost of the 82nd Airborne Division, where soldiers are training Iraqi recruits for a civil defense corps that Sanchez considers an important part of his strategy for giving Iraqis more responsibility for security in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country.

At the outpost, Rumsfeld told reporters he would like the training effort accelerated so Iraqis can eventually relieve the U.S. military of responsibility for their nation's security.

"We are working hard on it, and investing in it, we have wonderful people training them, and they are increasingly taking over responsibility for security in this country," he said.

After watching a demonstration of the 82nd Airborne's training of Iraqi civil defense recruits, Rumsfeld said he was impressed.

"They are volunteering in large numbers," he said. "The work that they are engaged in is dangerous. There have been something in excess of 107 Iraqi security people who have been killed."

Rumsfeld also was to meet with Bremer, and with commanders and troops of the 1st Armored Division.

In earlier stops during his weeklong trip to Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Rumsfeld thanked countries that have contributed either humanitarian assistance or military forces to Iraq.