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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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May 31st,
2009 - US: Unclear Troop Number Remaining in Iraq Cities |
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US: Unclear Troop
Number Remaining in Iraq Cities By Chelsea J. Carter Associated Press May 31, 2009 Baghdad - Thirty days before
the deadline to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq's urban areas, it is
still unknown how many troops will remain in cities as commanders determine
their new roles, a U.S. general said Sunday. The U.S. military has repeatedly
said it will abide by the requirements of an U.S.-Iraqi security agreement,
but has released little publicly about how it will meet the June 30 deadline
or what the new distribution of its forces in Iraq will look like. "It remains to be seen
what the numbers will be," Army Brig. Gen. Keith Walker, commander of
the Iraqi Assistance Group, told reporters during a briefing in Baghdad. Under the security pact,
American troops who train and advise Iraq's security forces will stay in the
cities. Walker said commanders were working to determine the number of
additional forces, including some combat troops, that would be added to
training teams working in Iraq's urban areas. Walker dismissed any
suggestion the U.S. military was just renaming its combat units as trainers
to get around the pact. "It's truly not a shell
game," he said. The security agreement also
calls for all U.S. troops to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. President
Barack Obama has announced plans to withdraw American combat forces from Iraq
by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving 30,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops in advising and
training roles until the end of 2011. U.S. troops have been
training Iraqi forces since 2003, a slow process that has produced mixed
results. But the training has taken on new urgency with a timetable for the
U.S. withdrawal. With the clock ticking, it
also remains unclear how and when American troops will leave cities where
insurgents continue to battle U.S. and Iraqi forces. American combat troops
remain "fully engaged" in Mosul, considered the last urban
stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq, Walker said. They also continue to battle
insurgents in and around the city of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad. "All combat troops will
be out of the cities unless there is a specific invitation from the
government of Iraq," he added. The Iraqi government has several times
said the deadline was not extendable. Violence has dropped off
dramatically in Iraq since the troop surge of 2007, when the number of
attacks in Iraq averaged 900 a week. "For 22 of the last 26
weeks, we've seen less than 100 attacks per week," Walker said. But sporadic high-profile
attacks with large casualty counts continue to raise concerns about whether
Iraqi security forces will be able to adequately take over from the withdrawing
U.S. forces. In recent months, hundreds
of Iraqi civilians have been killed in bombings, and U.S. and Iraqi forces
remain a target of insurgents. "You often hear that
security remains fragile," Walker said. "There remain extremist
groups who are capable of conducting large, high-profile attacks. They can
kill a large number of people." But he also said Iraq's
security did not rest solely on the abilities of Iraqi forces, saying much of
the country's stability depended on its ability to improve its economy as
well as provide jobs and essential services, such as water and power. Walker's comments came the
same day he announced the closing of the Iraqi Assistance Group - the
American command that led the effort to develop Iraq's security forces. "Things have changed,
and it no longer makes sense to have two organizations doing the same
thing," he said. The work of the Iraqi
Assistance Group will be taken over by the Multi-National Security Transition
Command headed up by Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick. Also Sunday, two American
soldiers died from non-combat related injuries in separate incidents in Iraq,
the U.S. military said. The deaths raise to 24 the
number of American troops killed in Iraq in May, making it the deadliest
month since last September when 25 were killed. At least 4,306 members of
the U.S. military have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003,
according to an Associated Press count. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwK_CSpBxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD98HCD900 |