Major Offensive Under Way in Afghanistan
CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to CNN International and</s>YOUR WORLD TODAY. GORANI: All right. From all over the globe and also our U.S. viewer this hour, welcome to you. Now, we move on to this story, Jim.</s>CLANCY: The "Los Angeles Times" reports that the top U.S. commander in Iraq likely to recommend a pullback of U.S. troops from areas where security has been showing signs of improvement. General David Petraeus is to submit a report to Congress next month. The newspaper says he is expected to recommend that troops be moved to other parts of Iraq or kept in reserve, not pulled out of the country. The Times says the Bush administration hopes this will persuade Congress not to press for a major troop withdrawal.</s>GORANI: Now, U.S. and some Iraqi officials are blaming Al Qaeda in Iraq for a series of bombings near the Syrian border. They were coordinated attacks, and they targeted members of the Yazidi religious sect. Two hundred people were killed and more than 300 wounded. The head of the multinational forces in Iraq says Tuesday's attacks near the Syrian border have the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in Iraq from what he called its spectacular nature to the complete disregard for human life.</s>CLANCY: Now, the Yazidi community in Iraq is a minority group. It mixes elements of Islam and an ancient Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism. The Kurdish-speaking sect has been in the international spotlight ever since a Yazidi woman was stoned to death earlier this year. She had been dating a Sunni-Muslim man. The gruesome video that was captured on a cell phone found its way to the Internet. Soon after, there were reprisal attacks by Sunni groups. Many Yazidis have migrated in recent months to villages close to the Syrian border looking for some safety in numbers. That hope obviously shattered by the latest explosions.</s>GORANI: The ongoing tension between the U.S. and Iran may soon spike even further. At issue, whether Washington will label Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group. If it's reclassified as such, then the U.S. Treasury Department would have the power to go after the group's finances. White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano hos more on the debate within the Bush administration.</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is a president who has repeatedly said that he believes Iran is a destabilizing force in the world. At the same time, President Bush has been sharply criticized for not being tough enough on Iran. Well, now the Bush administration is looking to financially target, as you noted, Iran's elite military branch. Senior U.S. officials say that the administration is in serious discussions over naming all or part of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a specially- designated global terrorist group. Now, "The Washington Post" first reported this last night. The White house is not officially commenting. A spokesman in a statement saying today only, "It's not appropriate for us to discuss potential future actions. We continue to urge Iran to play a constructive role in the region and to stop providing support to terrorist organizations." Now, this designation, though, would be significant, because it would mark the very first time that the Bush administration has really decided to go after a group tied in to larger government, tied in essentially to a sovereign government. In the past, we have seen the Bush administration target individuals, target institutions, banks, and so on, but we have not seen this before. Now, we should mention that with this designation, of course, the Treasury Department would be able to go after essentially any businesses that conduct transactions with this elite military branch of Iran's forces. Officials, though, are emphasizing, though, Stephen, that a decision has not been made yet, as you noted, on whether or not they're going to target the entire Revolutionary Guard Corps or just elements of it. So discussions still continuing even as we speak.</s>CLANCY: Elaine Quijano at the White House. There she was talking with our colleague, Stephen Frazier, a little bit earlier. Now, the attacks against the Yazidiss that we were talking about a moment ago come as the United States and Iraqi forces are continuing their offensive against al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents in Diyala province. Joining us now from Baghdad to talk a little bit more about the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq and the possibility of troop pullbacks, U.S. Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, spokesman for the multinational force in Iraq. General, welcome to YOUR WORLD TODAY. Good to have you with us. Let me start with that pullback. There's a sense here that there's politics at play. Obviously, it would be to the administration's advantage to turn back the Democratic challenge that wants to see some kind of a wider pullback to show some kind of a pullback. Is General Petraeus, is the military in Iraq making their decisions based on what's going on the ground or what's going on, on Capitol Hill?</s>BRIG. GEN. KEVIN BERGNER, MULTINATIONAL FORCE SPOKESMAN: Well, Jim, that's real straightforward. We're focused strictly on the enemy here that's both al Qaeda and these special groups. Our focus is on really sustaining and pressing forward with the tactical momentum that's been achieved just in the last few weeks. And so, there is no talk here about anything other than continuing this offensive operation and keeping the pressure on both al Qaeda and the other extremist groups that we're operating against, and making some significant progress against, I should add.</s>CLANCY: Well, you know, when you look at this bombing today, that Yazidi community that killed more than 200 people, just -- it looked like a nuclear strike, according to some of the Iraqis that first came to the scene on those villages. You see how areas that are soft targets are being targeted, and the message seems to be you need more troops in more places, all at the same time. It seems impossible to do, but what will be the military response?</s>BERGNER: Well, Jim, remember that one of the -- one of the signature aspects of these al Qaeda attacks has been they're selecting spectacular attacks that would tend to incite ethnic sectarian tensions. They have preyed upon those who are frequently the most vulnerable and they've used, as you've seen in the last day or so, some absolutely barbaric attacks. I used to -- I spent my last tour in Iraq up in that area. I understand the nature of the people out there. These are grassroots, salt of the earth kinds of people. And so this has really been a very, very devastating attack on them, which again, goes back to the nature of this enemy we're dealing with. I want to add one other thing, Jim, real quickly, if I could.</s>CLANCY: Go ahead.</s>BERGNER: I want to just add one other thing. I have talked to the leaders on the ground up there, and in the wake of this attack, what we have seen is Arab, Kurdish, Yazidi, all pulling together. Casualties being treated in Kurdish hospitals, in Arab hospitals. The mayors of the three communities of Sinjar (ph), Biaj (ph) and Tal Afar all pulling together to work very well in a unified way to deal with the consequences of this. So, if anything, this attack, as tragic as it is, is unifying the people of western Ninua (ph) province tonight.</s>CLANCY: Let me ask you about the military intelligence. What is it pointing to? You've mentioned al Qaeda, but is it possible this community was targeted because, number one, they're very close to the Saudi -- to the Syrian border, where a lot of the Saudi -- Saudi Arabia says its own nationals are coming in and infiltrating? And number two, that incident that occurred some months ago with the woman who was killed for apparently dating a Saudi Arabian man.</s>BERGNER: Yes. It's really tough to connect some of those data points at this stage. And as I mentioned earlier, our focus is really on the humanitarian aspect of this, and that's what our focus is at the moment. But I would also say that the Iraqi forces and coalition forces there have really made some improvements, and in protecting the major population areas. And so, how that might have been a factor in the selection of this target, out in a very rural area, is something we'll learn more about.</s>CLANCY: Well, right now, there is an offensive under way that aims to undercut the organization of al Qaeda and other groups working in Iraq against the coalition, against the Iraqi government. How is that proceeding? How is it succeeding?</s>BERGNER: Well, we have seen significant progress with multinational division north, particularly in the Baquba area, the Diyala provincial area, if you will. And they have conducted a series of operations that are now expanding on the intelligence and the information that the local citizens are providing. So, over the last eight weeks of this offensive operation, it has created some momentum and some opportunities to further the attacks against these extremists.</s>CLANCY: How would it help if the U.S. government labels the al- Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards of Iran a terrorist group and starts tracking down their money? How would that help you?</s>BERGNER: Well, that's really a tough question to answer from here, Jim. That's very much a policy decision and it's one that our national leadership and our leaders in Washington really have to come to grips with.</s>CLANCY: All right. Major General -- Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, as always, thank you so much for joining us, giving us a bit of an update of what's going on, on the ground in Iraq.</s>BERGNER: Thanks, Jim.</s>GORANI: All right. A break here on YOUR WORLD TODAY. When we come back, we are tracking major storms around the globe today.</s>CLANCY: And coming up, Hala, we're going to see what's brewing and where in a live weather update.</s>GORANI: And then Venezuela's president is planning sweeping reforms. What are they, and will they give him even more power? Stay with us.