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DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The top U.S. commander in Iraq acknowledged on Thursday that the U.S. Army was stretched but insisted forces here were capable of accomplishing their mission and any recommendation to reduce troops further would be dictated by the situation on the battlefield.

U.S. officials said Gen. George Casey was speaking about the Army in general and not specifically about the 136,000-strong force in Iraq.

However, his comments are likely to fuel a debate inside the U.S. government over whether the United States can sustain the fight long enough to break the back of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency.

''The forces are stretched . . . and I don't think there's any question of that,'' Casey told reporters. ''But the Army has been for the last several years going through a modernization strategy that will produce more units and more ready units.''

Casey said he had discussed manpower strains with Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker on Wednesday and that the Army chief of staff feels he can sustain missions around the world. Casey was adamant that the troops in Iraq were getting the job done.

''So, yep, folks are stretched here but they certainly accomplish their mission, and the forces that you've seen on the ground are absolutely magnificent,'' Casey added.

In Washington, President Bush brushed aside talk that the United States could not prevail in Iraq.

''If the question is whether or not we can win victory in Iraq, our commanders will have the troops necessary to do that. If the question is, 'Can we help keep the peace in a place like the Far East?' Absolutely,'' Bush told reporters.

''And let me use the Far East as an example of what I'm talking about,'' the president continued. ''There were some 30,000 on the South Korean peninsula. As you might remember, we reduced the amount of manpower and replaced it with technology.''

Meanwhile, the U.S. command announced that two more American soldiers died Wednesday - one in a bombing south of Baghdad and a second of wounds suffered in a rocket attack in Ramadi.

At least 11 Iraqis were killed Thursday in attacks around the country, police said.

Also Thursday, the military released five Iraqi women detainees, a move demanded by the kidnappers of American reporter Jill Carroll. Officials said the women were part of a group of about 420 Iraqis to be released Thursday and Friday and that their freedom was not connected to efforts to free Carroll, who was seized in Baghdad on Jan. 7.

However, Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal said intensive efforts were under way to release Carroll, a freelancer for the Christian Science Monitor, and ''God willing, that she will be released.''

Casey spoke after attending a ceremony in which Polish troops transferred leadership of the south-central region of Iraq to Iraqi forces, the first such large-scale handover since the conflict began in 2003.

The transfer of authority for the sector, which includes about 25 percent of the country, was part of a larger strategy by the U.S.-led coalition to build up Iraqi forces and give them greater role in security - a move that could enable American and other international troops to draw down.

Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer said Thursday that the deposed Iraqi president wants Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

Khalil al-Dulaimi said Saddam wants to sue both leaders, along with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for allegedly authorizing the use of weapons such as depleted uranium artillery shells, white phosphorous, napalm and cluster bombs against Iraqis.