Rumsfeld: Expect more attacks in Iraq
July could bring increase in strikes on U.S. forces, he says
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Sunday that attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq might rise during the next couple of weeks.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to expect this to go on. And there's even speculation that during the month of July, which is an anniversary for a lot of Baathist events, we could see an increase in the number of attacks," Rumsfeld said on NBC's "Meet the Press," referring to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's political faction.
Since President Bush declared the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1, at least 81 U.S. troops have been killed -- 33 of them by hostile action. The latest fatality occurred Monday, when a GI was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
The military is engaged in its fourth operation aimed at weeding out Iraqi insurgents since the overthrow of Saddam's regime.
The United States has about 150,000 troops in the country -- the same number as before President Bush declared the end of major combat. Rumsfeld said the number deployed could increase if necessary.
He also defended a comment he had made in February, in which he said, "It's not logical to me that it would take as many forces following a conflict as it would to win the war."
"It's 10 weeks after the war, less than 10 weeks," he said Sunday on NBC. "What do I think about what I said? I'm comfortable with what I said. I don't know how many [troops] it'll take."
He added, "If we are able, and we believe we will [be], to increase the number of Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi policemen, and if we're able to increase the number of coalition contributions, as we believe we will ... it seems to me that the numbers of U.S. forces are unlikely to go up."
