BAGHDAD — U.S. military leaders said Wednesday that they expect the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq to respond to the American troop buildup by lashing out with "spectacular attacks" designed to aggravate sectarian tensions.
With military officials set to submit a preliminary progress report on Iraq to Congress in the coming days, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Al Qaeda in Iraq, which U.S. officials say is linked to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, is the main threat to U.S. and Iraqi security forces.
Bergner deemed the group "the main accelerant in sectarian violence" despite its small size and what U.S. officials say is a mostly foreign membership.
The renewed focus on foreign Al Qaeda in Iraq operatives comes a week after Bergner laid out U.S. contentions that Iran has tapped Hezbollah militants in Lebanon to train insurgents fighting U.S. troops in Iraq.
It may foreshadow efforts by military leaders to argue that the conflict in Iraq is fueled by foreign intervention, which they have reduced in areas such as the western province of Al Anbar, rather than homegrown militias and sectarian unrest.
The U.S. military has focused this summer on offensives to unseat Al Qaeda in Iraq and affiliated groups from Baghdad and surrounding cities and to win over local Sunni Muslim groups.
Bergner said U.S. troops also were staging operations in cities such as Mosul to the north and Ramadi to the west to prevent displaced Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters from resurfacing.
He said U.S. forces had killed or captured 26 Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders during May and June.
At an afternoon news conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, Bergner said U.S. forces were better able to attack Al Qaeda in Iraq because of the additional 28,500 troops ordered into the country this year by President Bush, new alliances with Sunni groups opposing Al Qaeda in Iraq such as the Diyala Support Council, and increased support from Iraqi citizens.
Bergner said 60 to 80 foreign fighters arrive in Iraq each month, the vast majority through Syria, and they are enlisted by Al Qaeda in Iraq for 80% to 90% of suicide bombings in Iraq.
"Their numbers are relatively small, but their effect is very, very devastating to the Iraqi people because they are employed frequently as these suicide bombers," he said.
He acknowledged that Shiite militias and insurgent groups also are destabilizing the country but said the military remained focused on Al Qaeda in Iraq.
