Secretary Gates and General Pace testified before the House Armed Services Committee about the president’s plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq in an effort to improve security and assist the Iraqi government’s efforts to assert control over insurgent forces in the country. They also answered questions about the Iraqi government’s willingness and capability to support such a plan. Secretary Gates responded saying he detected a much greater determination from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to go after “all lawbreakers” with “no exceptions.” He suggested that the prime minister would confront the militias fueling sectarian violence, including insurgents controlled by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.