General says he needs more troops
U.S. commander for northern Iraq cites the growing violence in Diyala province.

BAGHDAD â?? The commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq said Friday that he did not have enough troops to deal with the escalating violence in Iraq's Diyala province. Diyala borders Baghdad on the east, and violence in the province has grown as U.S. troop levels have been bolstered in the capital. ...

(Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. "Randy") Mixon, speaking Friday by teleconference from Camp Speicher, outside Tikrit, to a Pentagon news conference, said that he did not have enough soldiers to provide security in Diyala. The local government is "nonfunctional" and the central government is "ineffective," he said. ...

"I'm going to need additional forces," he said, "to get that situation to a more acceptable level, so the Iraqi security forces will be able in the future to handle that." ... Mixon emphasized that he had asked for more troops shortly after arriving in Iraq in September, well before the U.S. troop buildup began in Baghdad.