Bushs top general in Iraq criticised by US Congress for ruling out retreat

U.S. President George W Bushs top military commander in Iraq, General Petraeus, has received stinging criticism from leaders in Congress after ruling out a retreat and suggesting that Americas military surge in that country is progressing as planned.House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Landos dismissed General Petraeus assertion, saying there were tactical successes, but the surge was a strategic failure.

London, Sept.11 : U.S. President George W Bush's top military commander in Iraq, General Petraeus, has received stinging criticism from leaders in Congress after ruling out a retreat and suggesting that America's military surge in that country is progressing as planned.House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Landos dismissed General Petraeus' assertion, saying there were tactical successes, but the surge was a strategic failure.

Lantos said it was time for the troops to leave.

In his testimony before a joint hearing by the House of Representatives Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, General Petraeus said he thought around 30,000 troops could be withdrawn by the middle of next year.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker has also been called in to testify.

According to the Daily Mail and the BBC, Bush hopes that the overall positive assessment provided by General Petraeus and Crocker will make it much harder to argue for America's pull out of Iraq.

Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has backed the surge, saying the strategy had produced some tangible results.

General Petraeus said the Pentagon or the White House had not cleared his testimony before he gave it, and that he had written it himself.

Crocker said he believed it was possible for the US to see its goals achieved in Iraq. record 168,000 US troops are now in Iraq after 30,000 arrived in the surge between February and June.

"To commit to any further timetable for a wholesale withdrawal from Iraq would be 'misleading and hazardous," General Petraeus insisted.

Billed for months as a pivotal turning point in the four-year conflict, General Petraeus's testimony ended up slotting seamlessly into the White House campaign to win more time to try and pull off an unlikely victory in Iraq.

General Petraeus sprinkled his progress report on the conflict with examples of the surge's successes.

As he detailed gains being made in Iraq, it was also being announced that seven more U.S. soldiers had died in an accident and two more in battle, adding to the more than 3,700 American soldiers who have already perished in the conflict.

He claimed that the number of attacks have dropped in Baghdad and elsewhere in eight of the last twelve weeks. Sectarian deaths are down 55 per cent since the height of the insurgency in December last year, with an 80 per cent decrease reported in Baghdad.

The general also claimed civilian deaths were down 45 per cent during the same period, "although they are still at terrible levels".

He claimed 4,400 arms and explosives dumps have also been located and destroyed this year, compared with 1,700 last year.

He stuck firmly to the Bush administration line that a premature withdrawal of troops would jeopardise the gains that have been made.

ANI