Obama tells Maliki US will pull out troops on time

IRAQ WARS

Biden: US will stick to Iraq pullout timetable
The United States will stick to its timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq despite recent violence, Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday as President Barack Obama visited Baghdad. "I'm not worried about that at all," Biden told CNN referring to upsurge in attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda, "we will draw down along the timeline we suggested." Obama -- who was on a surprise trip to Iraq Tuesday after a tour of Europe and Turkey -- plans to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, although a force of up to 50,000 will remain through 2011. Biden said the president went to Baghdad to pay tribute to US troops and to urge political reconciliation in talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "One of the things the president has said from the beginning is in addition to us drawing down troops, it was necessary for there to be further political accommodation between the Sunnis, Shia, and the Kurds," he said.

by Staff Writers
Baghdad (AFP) April 7, 2009
US President Barack Obama told Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday that he would pull American troops out of the country as planned, the premier's office said.

"Obama renewed the American commitment to Iraq and to withdraw troops as previously planned," Maliki's spokesman Yasin Majid said, decribing the meeting in which the two leaders also discussed security as "positive."

The US president has ordered an end to US combat operations in Iraq by August 31 2010, but says 50,000 troops will remain under a new mission until the end of 2011.

Hefty support for Obama's Iraq withdrawal: poll
More than two-thirds of Americans support President Barack Obama's plans to withdraw most US troops from Iraq, a new poll said Tuesday as Obama paid a surprise visit to Baghdad.

A total of 69 percent backed the withdrawal plan while 30 percent were opposed, the poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corp. said.

In February Obama announced he was pulling most combat troops out of Iraq by August 2010, although a force of up to 50,000 will remain until the end of the following year. The current deployment is more than 140,000.

A military accord signed last November between Baghdad and Washington requires all US forces to leave the country by the end of 2011.

The poll was released as Obama arrived for his first visit to Iraq since taking office in January, amid a new upturn in deadly attacks blamed by the Iraqi government and US military on the Al-Qaeda terror network.

The president told CBS television late last month that he would not speed up troop withdrawals from Iraq, arguing the war-torn country was "moving in the right direction" but still needed US help.

The CNN poll of 1,023 respondents was conducted by telephone from Friday to Sunday, and has an error margin of three percentage points.

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

IRAQ WARS

Iraqi police arrest leader of Saddam-allied insurgents

Kirkuk, Iraq (AFP) April 30, 2009
Iraqi police on Thursday said they had captured the head of an insurgent group close to executed dictator Saddam Hussein's still fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement