Baghdad, January 10
US President George W. Bush was on late Wednesday expected to propose sending about 20,000 more troops to Iraq but there was scepticism in Baghdad the plan would end the constant violence.
US officials said Bush wants to deploy 21,500 extra US troops to join around 1,30,000 already in Iraq. Four thousand would go to the volatile Anbar province, but most would go to Baghdad, where one out of four Iraqis live.
US commanders in Iraq have said the key to the success of Bush's revamped strategy is easing violence in the capital.
Streets were quiet in a Sunni insurgent bastion in Baghdad after US and Iraqi forces, backed by fighter jets and helicopters, killed 50 people on Tuesday. That battle may have been part of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's pledge to crush militants, regardless of their sect. But gunmen fired on two buses of pilgrims returning to the Shi'ite city of Kerbala from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, killing eight.
— Reuters
