US troop reinforcements have begun arriving here to help Iraqi forces try to regain control of the capital's streets amid worsening sectarian violence that US generals fear is pushing the country towards civil war.

Iraq's Ministry of Defence yesterday confirmed the arrival of the first units of the 172nd Stryker Combat Team from the northern city of Mosul after US soldiers were seen patrolling in some of the capital's predominantly Sunni western districts.

The units are equipped with the US military's newest armoured combat vehicle, the eight-wheeled Stryker, which military officials say is better suited to the urban terrain and will provide troops with more manoeuvrability and firepower.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last month extended the year-long tour of 3,700 troops from the 172nd by four months and redeployed them to Baghdad to help curb communal bloodshed there that continues to kill scores every week.

The decision was seen as an admission that the seven-week-old Operation Forward Together, a security crackdown in the capital driven by 50,000 mostly US-trained Iraqi forces, had failed to quell violence.

Source: China Daily