March 28, 2003	Friday	Muharram 24, 1424

WASHINGTON, March 26: Some US military officials are convinced the war in Iraq is likely to last for months and will require considerably more combat power than currently on hand in the country and in Kuwait, the Washington Post said on Wednesday.

An article posted on the paper’s website quoted unnamed senior defence officials as saying bad weather, long and vulnerable supply lines and stiffer than expected Iraqi resistance prompted some US generals to conduct a broad reassessment of military expectations and timelines.

Officials told the Post that military commanders on the battlefield in Iraq and in the Pentagon are talking about a longer, harder war than had been expected just a week ago.

“Tell me how this ends,” the newspaper quoted one senior official as saying in the article, which was also expected to appear in the newspaper’s Thursday editions.

But Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke denied the Post’s claim that a strategic reassessment had been undertaken.

“There is no major revision under way,” she said. “There is no major mid-course correction under way, as suggested in the Washington Post story.” She added that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has maintained for some time that the war in Iraq could last for days, weeks or months.

On Tuesday, Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fended off criticism that the invasion force was too small and not packing enough armour, after Iraqis inflicted casualties and caused numerous problems for US and British troops in southern Iraq. Myers called the US strategy “a brilliant plan.”—Reuters