US military analysis says troop "surge' in Iraq short of goal: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An internal US military assessment indicates that three months after the beginning of a troop "surge" in Baghdad, the military has been able to establish tentative control over fewer than one-third of the city's neighborhoods, The New York Times reported on its website Sunday.

The newspaper said that the assessment, which was completed in late May, found that US and Iraqi forces were able to "to protect the population" and "maintain physical influence over" only 146 out of 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.

In the remaining 311 neighborhoods, troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face "resistance," according to the one-page assessment, which summarized reports from brigade and battalion commanders in Baghdad, the Times report said.

The assessment offers the first comprehensive look at the progress of the effort to stabilize Baghdad with the heavy influx of additional troops, the paper said.

The remaining US units involved in the "surge" are just now arriving in Iraq.

According to the assessment, violence has diminished in many areas, but it is especially chronic in mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods in western Baghdad, The Times said, citing unnamed several senior officers.

Overall, improvements have not yet been as widespread or lasting across Baghdad as hoped, they acknowledged.

The operation "is at a difficult point right now, to be sure," the paper quotes Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, the deputy commander of the First Cavalry Division, as saying.

In an interview, he said that while military planners had expected to make greater gains by now, that has not been possible in large part because Iraqi police and army units, which were expected to handle basic security tasks, like manning checkpoints and conducting patrols, have not provided all the forces promised, and in some cases have performed poorly, The Times pointed out.