Gen Petraeus described the security situation in Iraq as improved since he last testified before the Congress in September, but still fragile and reversible.

He complained of Iranian support for insurgents and asserted that withdrawing US forces too quickly would jeopardise security gains achieved over the past year. Petraeus said he wants a “45-day period of consolidation and evaluation” once the last of the five “surge” brigades goes home at the end of July.

Uncertain timetable

“At the end of that period, we will commence a process of assessment to examine the conditions on the ground and, over time, determine when we can make recommendations for further reductions,” he said.

However, Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said, “An announcement of an open-ended pause in troop reductions, starting in July, would simply send the wrong message to the Iraqi leaders.” Levin was followed by the committee’s ranking Republican John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

“Much more needs to be done, and Iraq’s leaders need to know that we expect them to show the necessary leadership to rebuild their country, for only they can,” McCain told the committee.

Hundreds of Shia civilians in Sadr City fled their homes after fighting between a combined US and Iraqi forces versus Mahdi militia erupted on Tuesday.

The militia also pounded the Green Zone in central Baghdad with mortar rounds. The fresh violence started after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr of barring from contesting the poll unless he disbands the Mahadi army. 

The Sadr movement dismissed this threat, arguing that participation in the poll is a constitutional right. The movement leaders said the militia will be dissolved only if commanded to do so by the Shia religious hierarchy.
Maliki’s tough line coincided with Petraeus and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, who are seeking to maintain the support of the legislature.