Troops 'may stay longer': Rumsfeld

Some American troops due to leave Iraq soon might have to stay longer due to the current spate of violence, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.

US Marines battled rebels for control of the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah, calling in air strikes against a mosque compound where witnesses said dozens of Iraqis were killed in six hours of fighting.

In the south, an anti-US uprising led by a radical Shiite cleric raged for the fourth day.

The defence secretary said officials would “be managing” the pace of troop rotations to ensure that seasoned troops now in Iraq would remain to see the current spate of violence through.

Rumsfeld said the commander of American forces in the region, Gen John Abizaid, and his deputies had not asked yet for more troops or an order delaying the departure of any soldiers.

“You can be certain that if they want more troops, we will sign deployment orders so that they’ll have the troops they need,” Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon.

American forces are in the middle of a rotation, as troops who have been there a year are replaced by fresh forces. That gives the United States the advantage of thousands of extra forces there during the switch over to deal with new fighting that has broken out in cities across the country.

“We’re taking advantage of that increase, and we will likely be managing the pace of the redeployments to allow those seasoned troops with experience and relationships with the local populations to see the current situation through,” Rumsfeld said.