U.S. commander halts troop withdrawals from Iraq

By Kristin Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress on Tuesday he plans to stop U.S. troop withdrawals in July due to fragile security gains in a progress report with repercussions on the U.S. presidential campaign.

A recent increase in violence -- including the deaths of 11 American service personnel in the past 48 hours -- has thrust Iraq back to among the top concerns of war-weary American voters ahead of the November election.

Gen. David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the year-long troop increase has led to an improvement in security in parts of Iraq but that these gains are "fragile and reversible."

He said an Iraqi operation earlier this month to tackle Shi'ite militias in the southern city of Basra -- which President George W. Bush had called a "defining moment" for Iraq, was a disappointment, not adequately planned or prepared.

To avoid jeopardizing the gains of the past year, Petraeus said he had recommended a 45-day halt in July to a series of troop withdrawals and after that pause would assess conditions on the ground to determine whether security is sufficient to bring more home.

The United States now has 160,000 troops in Iraq. Under plans announced last year, the Pentagon is pulling five combat brigades -- or about 20,000 troops -- out by mid-July, bringing the force level down to what it was before the troop increase.

The end result is that more than 100,000 U.S. troops could still be in Iraq until Bush leaves office in January 2009, leaving the U.S. presence to the next president to handle.