Obama announces withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

Barack Obama

AFP - President Barack Obama said Friday the withdrawal of some American soldiers 39,000 still stationed in Iraq by the end of the year, ending nearly nine years of conflict initiated by his predecessor George W . Bush in March 2003. "Today, I am able to announce, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will return by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, the war waged by the United in Iraq is over, "Obama said in a speech at the White House. Obama's announcement came after a video conference between him and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and the failure of negotiations to keep U.S. troops there.

"The views of the two leaders were identical on the need to initiate a new phase of strategic relationships, having completed the withdrawal (of U.S. troops) to a specific date at the end of the year," Maliki responded in a statement released by his office. The date of departure of the troops at the end of the year was already the subject of an agreement reached in 2008 between the two countries. But Washington and Baghdad traded in order to maintain a contingent of several thousand men to train Iraqi soldiers.

Talks stumbled including the legal status of U.S. troops after 2011. Washington demanded complete immunity for its soldiers, making them immune from prosecution in Iraq, Baghdad denied that. This is a "major obstacle" in negotiations with Baghdad had acknowledged Monday a senior U.S. defense. 

The Iraqi Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr had acceptable Wednesday that U.S. military trainers remain in Iraq beyond the end of the year provided that the U.S. military withdraws completely and that the United States pay a "compensation" to Iraq. "We are still opposed to the U.S. presence in Iraq," Sadr launched into his speech. "We see it as an occupation. Maintain American trainers in Iraq in part," he stressed.

The announcement of Mr. Obama comes after the "deactivation" of the division of North American device in Iraq in the heart of a conflict between the central authorities of the country and those of the autonomous region of Kurdistan. This conflict is often described by Americans as one of the major risks to long-term stability of Iraq and Iran's influence in this country also Shiite majority. The United States has another 18 bases in the country. 

Obama announced that Mr. al-Maliki would travel to the White House in December, when the two countries will resume normal relations between sovereign states. Mr. Obama recalled that he had campaigned in 2008 against the intervention of his country in Baghdad. He has sent tens of thousands of troops as reinforcements in Afghanistan, whose first preparing to leave the country as part of a transfer of security to Afghan forces.

"The United States argued in a strong position," assured the president. "The long war in Iraq will end by the end of the year. The transition takes shape in Afghanistan and our troops to come home at last," he said. George W. Bush had started the invasion of Iraq in 2003 without the backing of the United Nations officially put out of harm's weapons of mass destruction that the dictator Saddam Hussein was supposed to possess. These weapons will never be found and Saddam Hussein was finally captured by U.S. forces in December 2003 and executed by the Iraqi judiciary in 2006. The war has killed at least 4,000 deaths in the ranks of the coalition assembled by the United States and at least 100,000 dead, according to various estimates, the Iraqi people.

Suicide bombers, attacks hit Baghdad police, 23 dead

 

(Reuters) - Suicide bombers and roadside blasts targeted police in a wave of attacks across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens on the second day of serial bombings in the Iraqi capital in less than a week.

One bomber rammed an explosives-filled vehicle into a police station in central Alwiya district, killing 13, and another blew up his car at a police building in northwestern Hurriya, killing 4 people and wounding 40, officials said.

"A car approached and... the driver smashed through the checkpoint and exploded the car when he hit a concrete barrier," Police Lt. Nadeer Adel told Reuters. "Smoke was everywhere, we all took cover. Minutes later we found a crater and some of our police were dead."

The Hurriya blast burned out police vehicles and damaged the station's blue protective blast walls next to the large crater in the road. In other districts blasts blew out windows from nearby homes and shops, scattering streets with debris.

The string of apparently coordinated bombings highlighted worries over the ability of insurgents to test Iraqi forces with multiple attacks despite security improvements as the last U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by the end of this year.

A car bomb on Wednesday also targeted a police patrol in southern Ilaam district, killing at least three, while a roadside bomb hit an army patrol in Hurriya, killing one civilian and injuring 12 people, mostly soldiers, police said.

Two police officers were also killed and seven people wounded when a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the mainly Shi'ite Washash district in western Baghdad.

None of Iraq's insurgent or militia groups claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suicide bombings are usually the hallmark of Iraq's al-Qaeda affiliates.

At least 10 people were killed on Monday in three successive blasts in Washash district. The first blast was followed by two more when emergency services arrived at the site to tend to wounded.

The two days of Baghdad attacks came just after the government said it was postponing the army's handover of security in the cities to the police because it was concerned over their readiness.

The number of bombings and attacks in Iraq has fallen sharply from its peak during the sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but Sunni Islamists tied to al-Qaeda and radical Shi'ite militias are still a threat in the OPEC producer.

Insurgents this year have increasingly targeted local security forces and local government offices outside the capital in what Iraqi officials say is an attempt to show that the government cannot provide security as U.S. troops leave.

More than eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, the last 44,000 U.S. troops are preparing to pull out of Iraq when a bilateral security pact expires, though Baghdad and Washington are in talks about whether some will stay on as trainers.

News by Reuters