New Iraq war strategy stresses politics: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. commanders and diplomats in Iraq are completing a revised war strategy that aims to negotiate settlements between Iraq's warring factions, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The new strategy is more political than military and endorses removal of sectarian hard-liners from Iraqi security forces and government, the Post said, citing multiple sources with knowledge of the classified plan.

The Post said the new strategy is a joint effort between Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and was scheduled to be finished by May 31.

The plan anticipates keeping U.S. troop levels elevated into 2008 but also intends to significantly increase the size of the 144,000-strong Iraqi army, the newspaper said.

Officials said the plan involved reaching political deals to defuse a civil war as much as it aims to quell an insurgency.

The revised strategy would shift the immediate emphasis of military operations away from transitioning to Iraqi security forces toward protecting Iraqi civilian in critical regions such as greater Baghdad, the Post said.

"The revised counterinsurgency approach we're taking now really focuses on protecting those people 24/7 ... and that competent non-sectarian institutions take the baton from us," Petraeus's senior counterinsurgency adviser, David Kilcullen, told the newspaper.

The strategy emphasizes building the Iraqi government's capacity to function and also aims to purge Iraq's leadership of a few officials and commanders whose sectarian and criminal agendas are thwarting U.S. efforts, the Post said.

One U.S. official involved with the plan told the newspaper: "The focus has to be on abusive sectarian actors" involved in orchestrating sectarian killings and also obstructing key political legislation and financial reforms."