Agencies

BAGHDAD/AMMAN, 17 January 2004 — The US military command is on track to replace almost its entire force in Iraq over the next four months, but there are concerns intelligence on insurgents could be lost as new troops take over from experienced hands.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the overall commander of US forces in the country, said the troop rotation, the largest operation of its kind since World War II, was moving into full swing and should be completed within 90-120 days.

The United States currently has about 125,000 troops in Iraq but plans to bring virtually all of them home in rotation and replace them with a force of up to 110,000 fresher troops.

“At this point the rotation is going very well,” he told a news conference in Baghdad on Friday, adding that parts of the 101st Airborne Division, which is responsible for Mosul and other areas in northern Iraq, were already being replaced. In the south-central region, where 21 countries are contributing to a multinational force under Polish command, the rotation is expected to be completed by early February, while Sanchez’s command will end its tour at around the same time.

“The transition of the 5th Corps — my Corps staff — out of here will be completed by the first of February,” he said. Sanchez himself is expected to stay on. The rotation is not only an attempt to give soldiers a break, with some having already spent up to a year in the field and recent figures showing soldier suicides on the rise, but also offers a chance to introduce a new military approach.

Many of those currently deployed in Iraq have been involved in efforts to suppress a determined guerrilla insurgency and are in combat mode. But in the coming months commanders expect to need soldiers more for peacekeeping and reconstruction work as Washington prepares to hand over control to an Iraqi government. Meanwhile, Iraqi flags and portraits of its ousted leader Saddam were carried in the Jordanian capital yesterday as up to 2,000 demonstrators marched in support of Iraq and the Palestinians.

The march, organized by trade unions and political parties, including the main opposition Islamic Action Front, got underway after weekly prayers at the city’s mosques. It was the first pro-Iraq demonstration to be held in Amman, which was the scene of repeated anti-war protests last year, since the United States declared an end to major combat on May 1.

“From Jerusalem to Ramadi (we will stage a revolution) against the enemy,” said one of the banners.

Ramadi, west of Baghdad, is one of the centers of resistance against the US-led occupying forces in Iraq. Another banner denounced Israel’s construction of a security barrier across the West Bank saying: “A halt to the wall is a basis for a just peace”.