A top US commander predicted Friday intensifying fighting and more casualties as US and Iraqi forces move into sanctuaries used by Al-Qaeda to mount major terror bombings in Baghdad.
"As we have surged, we find the enemy surging as well," said Major General Rick Lynch, who commands an area in central Iraq that wraps around southern Baghdad.
"We are taking the fight to the enemy to counter his capabilities, but over time, especially as we continue to put our forces in areas where they have never operated we can expect to take continued casualties," he said.
Thirteen US soldiers under Lynch's command were killed and 39 wounded last month, mainly as a result of roadside bombs, according to the general, who said the number of attacks in his area has increased.
He said Al-Qaeda and associated extremist groups were the biggest threat but Iranian-made arms and munitions, including armor-piercing shaped explosives, were also turning up in his area.
As a buildup of US forces peaks this summer, Lynch said US troops will press in on sanctuaries that extremist groups have succeeded in establishing in the area, setting the stage for more intense fighting.
"When these surge units get on the ground, we're going to move to control those sanctuaries and that is going to come at cost," he told reporters here via video linkup from Iraq.
"So everybody has to acknowledge the fact that this still is a very difficult, very dangerous situation that we're working through on a daily basis," he said.
He said the biggest concern is that Al-Qaeda will step up its campaign of large scale car bombings and suicide attacks to try to fuel Sunni-Shia sectarian violence.
On Sunday, a massive car bombing in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala killed more than 70 people.
"He's not going to give up, he's not going to give those sanctuary areas up without a fight. So there's a fight that's fixing to happen in those sanctuary areas," Lynch said of Al-Qaeda.
At the same time, he charged that Iran was providing Shiite extremist groups with financing, training and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs.
"The EFPs are killing our soldiers and we can trace that back to Iran," he said.
He said US and Iraqi forces found mortars, rockets and ammunition with recent date stamps and Iranian markings in a raid April 22 in the town of Mahmudiya.
