Marine Commander Unhappy With Iraq's Lack of Progress

AL ASAD, Iraq — General James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, said yesterday that he was confident Al Qaeda in Iraq had been defeated here in western Iraq but was disappointed that the central government in Baghdad has not done more to reconcile with the region and begin providing essential services.

General Conway, on a whirlwind tour of al-Anbar province, declined to say whether he would recommend to General David Petraeus of the Army, the commander in Iraq, that Marine units in the west could return home any time soon. General Conway is set to testify to Congress later this week.

Like other Marine leaders, General Conway said the Marine mission after five years in Iraq could be summarized as "transition" — preparing Iraqi security forces and the local political and economic systems for the day the American involvement in Iraq ends.

Petraeus, after consulting with Conway and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is set to provide a recommendation this spring to President Bush about a possible drawdown of U.S. forces. Petraeus, in recent comments, has been concerned that a precipitous withdrawal of support could cause the Iraqi forces to disintegrate.

General Conway, during a visit yesterday to the 5th Marine Regiment headquarters here, said that while he wanted America to remain in Iraq until the country is stable and self-sustaining, he was concerned that back-to-back deployments for troops were stretching the Marine Corps thin, giving it little or no time to train young enlisted and officers for amphibious assaults, cold-weather warfare and other "core competencies."

The key to keeping insurgents out of al-Anbar, he said, lied with the Sunni tribal sheiks who initially were either neutral or sided with insurgents but starting in late 2006 began to side with American forces. Within months, insurgents had been driven from several cities they had controlled.

"There's a blood feud out there between the tribes and Al Qaeda," General Conway said during a chow hall interview. "They [the tribes] have seen the dark side and they don't like it. I don't see Al Qaeda [in Iraq] coming back."

To ensure that Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups don't regain a grip on the province, Marines continue to hunt them by land and air. In one sweep, Marines visited several hundred Bedouin camps near the Syrian border. The Marines' new tilt-rotor helicopter, the Osprey, is being used to reach otherwise inaccessible spots.

Meanwhile, several rockets smashed into the main American military base near the Baghdad airport and nearby neighborhoods, and initial reports said five Iraqi civilians were killed and two American soldiers were injured, according to an American military statement.

The statement said American and Iraqi forces found the site of the rocket launch and were holding six people for questioning.