Military Training

American military planners have begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters in case the current troop buildup fails or is derailed by Congress. Such a strategy, based in part on the U.S.

With its isolation and rustic ambience, this sparsely populated hamlet in eastern San Diego County offers the privacy and quiet its residents crave. "It's perfect: nobody here but us rural souls," Will Lee said as he headed to the Potrero General Store on a recent afternoon. But Lee's solitude and sense of being far from the madding crowd may soon be ruffled.

The U.S. military on Wednesday renewed its accusations that Iran is providing arms, training and other unspecified "support" to Shiite and Sunni Muslim factions in this country's ongoing civil war. Meanwhile, violence in Baghdad continued today with the bombing of a bridge that resulted in at least 10 deaths, authorities said. Police said a truck loaded with explosives blew up on the Sarafiya bridge shortly after 7 a.m., severing the middle portion of the iron-frame structure.

In a video shown on national television, an army instructor orders a soldier to envision himself in the Bronx facing hostile blacks while firing his machine gun, prompting a Defense Ministry investigation of training tactics in Germany's conscript army. The New York borough president demanded an apology from the German military.

Notice to Westsiders: Disregard the thwack-thwack-thwack of Black Hawk helicopter blades you might be hearing. The West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus is not, repeat not, under attack. The California National Guard is slated to launch a three-day training exercise today titled Operation Vector. Plans call for a Hollywood-style convergence of a simulated natural disaster and faux bio-terror attack designed to test how well Guard teams work with local emergency responders.

Lt. Col. Dirk Levy, commander of a California National Guard battalion that took heavy casualties in Iraq, said he can't get used to civilians slogging through training exercises alongside his uniformed troops. "I keep thinking, 'Who are these people?' " Levy said.

The Air Force's top general expressed frustration on Tuesday with the reassignment of troops under his command to ground jobs for which they were not trained, including guarding prisoners, driving trucks and typing. Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, said that more than 20,000 airmen had been assigned to roles outside their specialties. In a breakfast session with reporters, Moseley said he was trying to be realistic. "We live in a military that's at war.

Teams of Iraqi soldiers huddled outside the doors of two small homes across a narrow road from each other. Their AK-47s were ready, and so were they. They kicked in the doors of each house, burst in, and began searching the rooms for insurgents, aiming their weapons as they moved crab-like through the maze-like structures. "Stop! Stop! Stop!" someone hollered in English from a catwalk above them. It was U.S. Army 1st Lt. Andrew Fuller, trying to break the soldiers of a potentially lethal habit.

A Marine general has ordered a review of training procedures after an investigation blamed the shooting death of a corporal on a failure to follow safety procedures during an exercise meant to simulate fighting in Iraq. Cpl. Seth Algrim, who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was killed Oct. 30 during a night training exercise. Sgt. Caleb P. Hohman shot Algrim twice, including once in the head, according to a military investigative report.

Military officials announced they were suspending training at an aerial bombing range where a flare dropped from a military jet may have caused a 27-square-mile wildfire. The Air Force also said it had convened an accident investigation board to investigate how the blaze began on the Warren Grove Gunnery Range. New Jersey Air National Guard officials said the fire might have been sparked by a flare dropped from an F-16 into the dry Pinelands during a training mission Tuesday.