US President George W. Bush insisted on Saturday his new strategy in Iraq showed promise but needed more time to bear fruit. "We are still in the early stages of our new operations," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "But the successes of the past couple of months have shown that conditions on the ground can change -- and they are changing."
According to AFP, Bush added: "We cannot expect the new strategy we are carrying out to bring success overnight."
The President said that every month since January, US forces have killed or captured on average more than 1,500 Al-Qaeda fighters and other "insurgents" in Iraq.
Bush in his radio address said security had improved in Iraq since his "surge strategy" deployed an extra 30,000 troops earlier this year. Recent operations had cleared "terrorists out of population centres" and given "families in liberated Iraqi cities a safer and more normal life," Bush said.
"As security improves, more Iraqis are stepping forward to defend their democracy," he sais, adding that more Iraqi men were signing up for the army and that Iraqi police were patrolling streets.
