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Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Search Search: Iraqi cabinet approves US military pact AFP - Monday, November 17 BAGHDAD (AFP) - - Iraq's cabinet defied fiery opposition from Shiite hardliners on Sunday to approve a wide-ranging military pact that includes a timetable for the withdrawal of all US troops by the end of 2011. Within hours of the cabinet decision, a suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Iraq's volatile Diyala province, killing at least 15 people and underscoring the violence that still plagues the country. Baghdad and Washington have been scrambling to reach an agreement that will govern the status of more than 150,000 US troops stationed in 400 bases across the country after their UN mandate expires on December 31. The cabinet approved the agreement after a two and a half hour meeting, with 27 ministers voting for it, one minister abstaining, and the remaining 10 skipping the meeting, according to a minister who voted in favour. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters after the vote that all the most important political blocs had taken a "positive position" on the deal. "They all expressed a positive position because they consider it the best (agreement) possible, because it will manage and end the military presence and guarantee the complete withdrawal of the troops." Iraq's parliament will vote on the pact on November 24, with the first reading set for Monday, deputy speaker Khalid al-Attiya told AFP. The agreement would then need to be ratified by Iraq's presidential council before Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would sign the deal with US President George W. Bush. It took nearly 11 months of tense and detailed negotiations before both Baghdad and Washington were comfortable with the SOFA pact on the future of US forces in Iraq. The draft agreement includes 31 articles and calls for US troops to pull out of Iraqi cities by June 2009 and from the entire country by the end of 2011. Under the agreement an executive and a technical committee will be established to investigate "violations" committed by US forces, Dabbagh said, without giving further details. Iraq had demanded the right to prosecute alleged crimes committed by US troops and foreign contractors, while the United States agreed to lift their immunity only for those who committed crimes off-duty and off their bases. Dabbagh said Iraq had succeeded in securing the right to investigate all cargo being brought into and out of the country, another key demand it had made in the negotiations. And the agreement will transfer the files of an estimated 16,400 detainees currently being held by US forces to Iraqi judges, who will decide their fate. The pact has drawn fire from hardline nationalists, especially the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters have called for mass demonstrations to oppose any agreement with the US "occupier." "We were surprised and shocked by this approval, which expresses devotion to the occupation by agreeing to the mandate the occupier wanted," Hazem al-Araji, a senior Sadrist leader told AFP. "This approval underestimates the blood of the martyrs, the opinion of the clerics, and the popular rejection of this agreement," he said, adding that the movement would hold a protest in Baghdad on Friday. The volatility of the security situation was highlighted by a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad Sunday shortly before the cabinet meeting began which killed three people, including two members of a pro-government Sunni militia. And less than two hours after the cabinet ended it meeting, a suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint east of Baquba, capital of Iraq's volatile Diyala province, killing 15 people and wounding 20 others. Sunday's attacks notwithstanding, Iraq has seen dramatic improvements in security over the past year as US and Iraqi forces have allied with local tribal militias to flush insurgents and militias out of vast swathes of the country that were once ungovernable. The reduction in violence has also been partly attributed to an order by Sadr at the end of August 2007 to his thousands-strong Mahdi Army militia to observe a ceasefire. But on Friday Sadr announced the creation of a new militia -- the Brigades of the Promised Day -- to fight the Americans. The objections of the firebrand cleric, who is believed to be living in Iran, will have little impact on the decision, given that his party holds only 28 seats in Iraq's 275-seat parliament. 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