Foreign troops to leave Iraq by 2010 UK

BAGHDAD – British officials said they expected all foreign combatant forces to withdraw from Iraq within four years, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Baghdad to show support to its new government yesterday.

As Blair arrived in the capital’s fortified Green Zone, two bomb attacks killed at least five people in other parts of Baghdad – a fresh reminder of the tough challenges new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki faces in restoring stability. They came a day after a series of bombs killed at least 19 people in Baghdad as Maliki’s coalition held its first cabinet meeting on Sunday, the bloodiest of them being claimed by an al Qaeda-affiliated Sunni Islamist militant group.Washington and London count on Maliki, a tough-talking Shi’ite Islamist who has vowed to use “maximum force against terrorists”, to start tackling such violence plaguing Iraq three years after they invaded to topple Saddam Hussein.Saddam himself was back in court just a few hundred metres from where Blair was due to meet Maliki.A senior British official said Maliki’s national unity government will accelerate the handover of security control from US-led forces to Iraqis, allowing London to bring some troops home by mid-year.Three years after the invasion to topple Saddam, the United States has some 133 000 troops in Iraq while the British troop strength is around 7 000, mainly patrolling Iraq’s south.At least 2 450 US soldiers and 111 British troops have been killed in Iraq since 2003, and both countries are keen to start drawing down their military presence.”The aim is to take Iraq to a position where the multinational force is able to withdraw during its (the government’s) period in office,” said a British official, accompanying Blair on his fifth visit to Iraq since the war.”During the four years, the present role and structure of the multinational force will change and come to an end,” he said, adding some troops may stay beyond the government’s four-year term in a non-combatant role to train Iraqis.Blair was meeting the top US and British military commanders in Iraq and members of the country’s new government.Parliament was meeting for the first time since it approved the new government on Saturday.Washington has said it is too soon to discuss a timetable for the withdrawal of its troops.Maliki said after he was sworn at the helm of a grand coalition of Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds that he will work to complete rebuilding Iraq’s US-trained armed forces so that foreign troops could leave within an “objective timetable.”Shortly before Blair arrived in a helicopter, a bomb exploded in a city market in the New Baghdad district killing at least three people and wounding 12, police sources said.A car bomb later went off in a crowded street in southeastern Baghdad, killing at least two people, wounding five and setting a building ablaze, police said.One policeman said he saw at least three bodies lying on the road and four cars on fire after the explosion in the Zaafaraniya district.- Nampa-ReutersThey came a day after a series of bombs killed at least 19 people in Baghdad as Maliki’s coalition held its first cabinet meeting on Sunday, the bloodiest of them being claimed by an al Qaeda-affiliated Sunni Islamist militant group.Washington and London count on Maliki, a tough-talking Shi’ite Islamist who has vowed to use “maximum force against terrorists”, to start tackling such violence plaguing Iraq three years after they invaded to topple Saddam Hussein.Saddam himself was back in court just a few hundred metres from where Blair was due to meet Maliki.A senior British official said Maliki’s national unity government will accelerate the handover of security control from US-led forces to Iraqis, allowing London to bring some troops home by mid-year.Three years after the invasion to topple Saddam, the United States has some 133 000 troops in Iraq while the British troop strength is around 7 000, mainly patrolling Iraq’s south.At least 2 450 US soldiers and 111 British troops have been killed in Iraq since 2003, and both countries are keen to start drawing down their military presence.”The aim is to take Iraq to a position where the multinational force is able to withdraw during its (the government’s) period in office,” said a British official, accompanying Blair on his fifth visit to Iraq since the war.”During the four years, the present role and structure of the multinational force will change and come to an end,” he said, adding some troops may stay beyond the government’s four-year term in a non-combatant role to train Iraqis.Blair was meeting the top US and British military commanders in Iraq and members of the country’s new government.Parliament was meeting for the first time since it approved the new government on Saturday.Washington has said it is too soon to discuss a timetable for the withdrawal of its troops.Maliki said after he was sworn at the helm of a grand coalition of Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds that he will work to complete rebuilding Iraq’s US-trained armed forces so that foreign troops could leave within an “objective timetable.”Shortly before Blair arrived in a helicopter, a bomb exploded in a city market in the New Baghdad district killing at least three people and wounding 12, police sources said.A car bomb later went off in a crowded street in southeastern Baghdad, killing at least two people, wounding five and setting a building ablaze, police said.One policeman said he saw at least three bodies lying on the road and four cars on fire after the explosion in the Zaafaraniya district.- Nampa-Reuters