President Bush has decided to name Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as the top American military commander in Iraq, part of a broad revamping of the military team that will carry out the administration’s new Iraq strategy, administration officials said Thursday.
In addition to the promotion of Petraeus, who will replace Gen. George Casey, Adm. William Fallon, who is the top admiral in the Pacific, is expected to replace Gen. John Abizaid as the head of Central Command, officials said.
The changes are being made as the White House is considering an option to increase American combat power in Baghdad by five brigades as well as adding two battalions of reinforcements to the volatile province of Anbar in western Iraq.
Bush and several top aides held a video teleconference on Thursday, speaking with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his top deputies about plans to add forces in the capital and other matters. The session lasted roughly an hour and forty-five minutes.
“I said that `you show the will, we will help you,”‘ Bush told reporters.
Echoing the comments of both military and political advisers in recent weeks, he added: “One thing is for certain: I will want to make sure that the mission is clear and specific and can be accomplished.”
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Senior administration officials said the choice of Petraeus was part of a broader effort to change almost all of the top American officials in Iraq as Bush changes his strategy there.
“The idea is to put the whole new team in at roughly the same time, and send some clear messages that we are trying a new approach,” a senior administration official said Thursday.
Fallon would be the first Navy officer to serve as the senior officer of Central Command, which is managing simultaneous ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fallon is regarded within the military as one of its stronger regional combat commanders, and his possible appointment also reflects a greater emphasis on countering Iranian power, a mission that relies heavily on naval forces and combat airpower to project American influence in the Persian Gulf.
Petraeus, the head of the Army’s Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., helped oversee the drafting of the military’s comprehensive new manual on counterinsurgency. He has served two previous tours in Iraq.
In other developments, twin car bombs killed 13 people Thursday in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood. The explosions went off one after another at 10:30 a.m. in the Mansour neighborhood. Police said at least 25 people were wounded.
Iraqi police said 47 tortured bodies were found dumped across Baghdad, up from 27 a day earlier.