WASHINGTON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Two more retired generals have joined a group of four former senior military leaders in their call for U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to step down for his mishandling of the war in Iraq, media reports said Friday.

    "We need a new secretary of defense," retired major general Charles Swannack, former commander of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, said on CNN on Thursday.

    Swannack, who led troops on the ground in Iraq as recently as 2004, became the fifth retired senior general in recent days to call publicly for Rumsfeld's ouster. Another retired Army general, Major General John Riggs, was the sixth.

    In an interview with The New York Times published on Friday, he said the United States needed to continue the fight against terrorism, "but I do not believe Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person to fight that war based on his absolute failures in managing the war against Saddam in Iraq."

    Retired major general John Batiste, who commanded the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, said that Rumsfeld should step down because he ignored sound military advice about how to secure Iraq after Baghdad fell, according to a report published by the USA TODAY newspaper on Friday.

    "Sadly, we started something we weren't prepared to finish," Batiste said, adding that many senior officers shared his feelings about Rumsfeld.

    Other retired generals asking for Rumsfeld's resignation included retired Marine Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, who held the key post of director of operations on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2000 to 2002, retired Army Major General Paul Eaton, who served in Iraq, and retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, former U.S. Central Command chief and a longtime critic of Rumsfeld and the administration's handling of the Iraq war.

    The White House has dismissed the criticism and rebuffed the calls for Rumsfeld's resignation.

    "The president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at a briefing on Thursday.

    Rumsfeld, born in July 1932, has served as the U.S. defense secretary since January 2001.

    He has weathered previous calls for his resignation from Democratic lawmakers, however, the latest wave of criticism was distinct in that it came from inside the ranks of the military. Enditem