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WASHINGTON - The U.S. commander in northern Iraq said Friday he doesn’t have enough troops for the mission in increasingly violent Diyala province.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon also said that Iraqi government officials are not moving fast enough to provide the “most powerful weapon” against insurgents - a government that works and supplies services for the people.

Mixon commands the area that includes Diyala province, north of Baghdad. It was a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency before the start of the Baghdad security crackdown and has worsened since militants fled there to avoid the increased U.S.-led operations started in the capital in February.

His comments on the Iraqi government were unusually candid and in keeping with the sentiment in Congress and among some administration officials as well as an American electorate becoming ever more impatient with the war.

Mixon has already received extra troops, but violence in Diyala is on the rise, he said, both because more militants have moved in and because coalition forces are taking the offensive.

“We are sure there are elements of both Sunni extremists and Shia extremists that have moved out of Baghdad and relocated into not only Diyala province, but also into Salah ad Din province,” he said.

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