Iraq Notebook
U.S. tactics on re-upping challenged

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DENVER — A Colorado congresswoman called yesterday for an investigation into accusations that Iraqi war veterans near the end of their duty were given a choice between re-enlisting or being sent back to Iraq.

"They can't meet re-enlistment goals, so they're putting this hammer over their head, which is just wrong," Rep. Diana DeGette said at a news conference in Denver. "In the long term, the integrity of our military is going to suffer."

According to reports in the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post, soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Carson, Colo., were told they faced reassignment to units expected to be deployed to Iraq or Korea if they did not either re-enlist by the end of the month or extend their duty until the end of 2007. Those who re-enlisted or extended would stay with the 3rd Brigade, which already was deployed for a year in Iraq.

Fort Carson spokesman Lt. Justin Journeay said soldiers recently were given a form with three options; the third — neither extending nor re-enlisting — came with the understanding they could be reassigned.

He said it was not an attempt to coerce the soldiers but to record their choices so the Army can determine the strength of the force and meet its goal of having units that stick together for several years with little turnover. Journeay said Fort Carson was exceeding re-enlistment goals.

Army may trim tours in Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The Army is considering shortening yearlong combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan amid concerns the long and perilous duty is making it hard to attract new soldiers and keep current ones, officials said yesterday.

Army leaders are looking at a length of service closer to the seven-month combat tours of Marines in those war zones, a senior Army official said on condition of anonymity.

But the official said there was concern among some in the Army that this could undermine units on the battlefield and that any change might be at least two years away.

"Shorter tours cause more turbulence," with more soldiers in transit to and from the combat zones, the official said. "It affects cohesiveness. It affects their ability to conduct their duty in a combat zone by knowing the terrain, knowing the enemy and knowing who is friendly. People come in and they'll be looking to get out."
 
Car bombings kill seven Iraqi guardsmen

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two car bombs killed seven Iraqi national guardsmen and a rocket barrage hit a police academy yesterday as insurgents kept up their offensive to subdue Iraq's beleaguered security forces.

The first car bomb struck a seven-vehicle National Guard patrol in the northeastern city of Mosul, killing at least four guardsmen and wounding three, police said. Gunmen followed up the blast with automatic-weapons fire before fleeing.

A suicide attacker later detonated an explosives-packed vehicle at a National Guard checkpoint near the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, killing at least three guardsmen and wounding several other people, police said.

Early today, U.S. warplanes struck a suspected hide-out for followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah, destroying the building and killing an unknown number of militants, the U.S. military said.

Two U.S. soldiers charged in Iraqi's death

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi civilian, the 1st Cavalry Division said yesterday.

The military identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr. and Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban, both of Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment from Fort Riley, Kan.

Fort Riley spokeswoman Sam Robinson said Horne, 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., and Alban, 29, of Carson, Calif., were on their second tour in Iraq with the unit.

The military said the alleged incidents are not related to murder charges filed against Sgt. Michael Williams and Spc. Brent May of the same unit. They were charged in the deaths of three Iraqis, the military said.