Bremer: Iraq will not be ready for security by deadline

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi security forces will not be ready to protect the country against insurgents by the June 30 handover of power, the top U.S. administrator said Sunday -- an assessment aimed at defending the continued heavy presence of U.S. troops here even after an Iraqi goverment takes over.\nThe unusually blunt comments from L. Paul Bremer came amid a weekend of new fighting that pushed the death toll for U.S. troops in April to 99, already the record for a single month in Iraq and approaching the number killed during the entire war.\nCoalition officials have been acknowledging for months that Iraqi police, security and military forces won't be able to fight insurgents alone and the transfer of security duties from U.S. forces to Iraqis will be slower than originally hoped.\nBut Bremer said the fighting across the country this month exposed the depth of the problems inside the security forces.\n"Events of the past two weeks show that Iraq still faces security threats and needs outside help to deal with them. Early this month, the foes of democracy overran Iraqi police stations and seized public buildings in several parts of the country," he said. "Iraqi forces were unable to stop them.\n"It is clear that Iraqi forces will not be able, on their own, to deal with these threats by June 30, when an Iraqi government assumes sovereignty," Bremer said in a statement issued by the U.S. coalition.\nWith U.S.-led forces fighting on two fronts and insurgent violence flaring elsewhere, April's U.S. combat death toll is nearing that of the entire Iraq invasion period. From March 30, when U.S. troops entered Iraq, to May 1, when President Bush declared major combat at an end, 115 U.S. servicemembers were killed. And until now, the single-month record for U.S. troops killed was 82, coming in November.\nViolence Saturday killed six Marines and five soldiers, bringing the toll in the first 17 days of April to at least 99. In fighting during the weekend, at least 40 Iraqis were killed, bringing the Iraqi total in April to more than 1,050.\nAlso Sunday, Spain's prime minister ordered the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq as soon as possible, fulfilling a campaign promise made after terrorist bombings that al Qaeda militants said were reprisal for Spain's support of the war.\nIraq's defense minister, Ali Allawi, a Shiite Muslim appointed by U.S. officials two weeks ago, announced his two top generals, a Sunni and a Kurd, establishing representatives of the country's three main communities in the senior defense positions.\nThe army's top general will be Gen. Babakir Zebari, who commanded Kurdish militiamen in the north for decades and fought alongside coalition troops during last year's invasion. The chief of staff will be Amer al-Hashimi, a Sunni and former general in the Iraqi infantry until he retired in 1997.\nU.S. officials have been rebuilding the military from scratch, arranging the training of recruits and naming Allawi as its civilian head.\nBut the recent violence has shown the weaknesses and conflicted feelings of the armed forces. An army battalion refused to join the Marines in the siege of Fallujah, Iraq, saying they did not intend to fight fellow Iraqis. During the Shiite militia uprising in the south, many police abandoned their stations, realizing they were badly outgunned or sympathizing with the militia's cause.\nSaturday was one of the bloodiest days for U.S. forces in the past two weeks, with heavy fighting at the town of Husaybah, Iraq, 240 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq, near the Syrian border.\nInsurgents ambushed a Marine patrol Saturday morning, sparking a battle throughout the day with up to 150 gunmen, Marine spokesman Lt. Eric Knapp said. Five Marines and up to 30 insurgents were killed, he said. Hospital officials said civilians were among the dead, as well as the town's police chief.\nFighting continued Sunday in three neighborhoods of Husaybah, which was sealed off by U.S. forces. It is located at the far end of Iraq's western Anbar province, a Sunni Muslim area that is also home to Fallujah and Ramadi, Iraq, two guerrilla strongholds.\nThree soldiers were killed Saturday when their 1st Armored Division convoy was ambushed near the southern city of Diwaniyah, Iraq. Another died when a roadside bomb exploded near a convoy in Baghdad, and a Marine was killed in action in western Iraq, separate from the fighting by the Syrian border.\nA soldier also died in a tank rollover, and another was electrocuted in an accident in the northern city of Samarra, Iraq.\nRockets aimed at a military camp in western Baghdad hit a nearby civilian area, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding four others. Two U.S. civilian contractors and a soldier also were wounded.\nA day and a half of calm in the besieged city of Fallujah was broken Sunday when Marines battled gunmen around a mosque.\nAssociated Press correspondent Jim Krane contributed to this report from Baghdad.