Iraqi forces performed 'pretty well' in Basra: McCain

9 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Sunday that Iraq's military performed "pretty well" in its recent Basra assault despite the "mixed" results of the battle.

Speaking ahead of a week when Congress will hold key hearings on the progress of the war in Iraq, the presumed Republican nominee for president defended Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government as increasingly effective in managing the war-torn country.

"Now, obviously, the results were mixed," McCain said on Fox News of the Basra attack against Shiite militia.

"Obviously, there were problems and Maliki in my view should have waited until we had concluded the battle of Mosul," he said in the interview recorded on Friday.

But, McCain said, "Overall, the Iraqi military performed pretty well. ... eight or nine months ago, it would have been unthinkable."

A staunch supporter of the war effort, McCain has pinned his campaign to win the presidential election in November to his opposition to an early withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Fellow senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, fighting for the Democratic party's nod to run against McCain, both advocate reducing the US troop presence quickly to pressure the Iraqi government to assume more responsibility for the country.

The three will hear testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday on Iraq from the US commander of troops in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US Ambassador to Baghad, Ryan Crocker.

With the future of the US presence in Iraq after five years a hot issue in the race to succeed President George W. Bush, each candidate is expected to use the testimony to define his or her own stance.

The fight in Basra is expected to be a crucial topic in the hearings of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on which Clinton and McCain sit, and the Senate Foreign Relations committee, where Obama sits.

The Baghdad leadership was criticized by top US officials for undertaking the attack on Basra without adequate preparation and without giving US forces adequate notice for providing back-up to the Iraqi military.

On March 25, Maliki ordered his forces to take on Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra in a crackdown which mostly targeted Mahdi Army fighters loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The Basra assault, and clashes spawned in other Shiite regions of Iraq left 700 people dead and 1,500 wounded, according to United Nations figures.

The fighting subsided after Sadr ordered his fighters off the street a week ago, but defense analysts have said the clashes exposed the limitations of Iraq's security forces.

McCain defended Baghdad's effort.

"We have asked the government time after time to act effectively. That we want this government to act. They acted," he said.

"It was al Sadr that declared a cease fire, not Maliki," he added. "I don't think al Sadr would have declared the cease-fire if he thought he was winning."

"I didn't particularly like the outcome of this thing, but I am convinced that we now have a government that is governing with some effect and a military that is functioning very effectively," he said.