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U.S. troops may be in Iraqi cities beyond next June
Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:03pm EST
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By Andrew Gray
BALAD, Iraq (Reuters) - The top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Saturday that some U.S. troops may remain in Iraqi cities after next June, even though a U.S.-Iraq security pact calls for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from urban areas by then.
U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno said troops operating alongside Iraqi forces out of shared urban bases could remain because the U.S. military believed they were essentially supporting Iraqi forces rather than serving as combat troops.
"We believe that's part of our transition teams ... in the Joint Security Stations," Odierno told reporters traveling with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a U.S. military base in Balad, northwest of Baghdad. "We believe we should still be inside of those after the summer."
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters on Gates' plane as he flew back to Washington that "the vast majority of U.S. forces garrisoned in Iraqi cities will be gone from those cities" by the end of June.
"The only forces remaining behind will be there at the invitation of the Iraqis to perform training and mentoring of Iraqi forces," Morrell said. He said those forces could still take part in combat missions but their primary role would be assisting Iraqi forces.
"If the Iraqis wish, those training and mentoring forces will participate with them in combat operations," he said.
The general's remarks came as controversy bubbled in Iraq over a government spokesman's suggestion that U.S. forces might not fully withdraw from the country by the end of 2011, as agreed to in the pact ratified by the Iraqi presidency on December 4.
Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, on a visit to Washington this week, said the Iraqi security forces might need 10 years to get ready to take over from U.S. troops.
"What Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh announced about Iraqi forces needing 10 years to be ready was a personal opinion and does not represent the Iraqi government opinion," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said in a statement.
Maliki's statement underscored the sensitivity of the future of U.S. troops in Iraq as violence begins to ease more than five years after the 2003 invasion unleashed horrific bloodshed.
Iraq's parliament approved the security pact last month after fierce debate. It is scheduled to be put to a referendum next year.
SKEPTICISM
Opponents of the pact, including supporters of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have argued it gives legitimacy to a destructive foreign occupation and say they do not believe the United States will honor the withdrawal date.
"This agreement was designed to legitimize the U.S. presence in Iraq," said Ahmed al-Massoudi, a politician from Sadr's bloc in parliament. "Things are not going to change when the pact takes effect. Violations against Iraqi people will continue; arrests will continue. I say the U.S. troops will not pull out."
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months, but he has said the United States may need to keep an undefined "residual" force in Iraq that might focus on training Iraqi forces. Continued...
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