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Foreign troops could quit Iraq early 2007: Report
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-06 10:21
US-led coalition forces plan to quit Iraq in early 2007, as at least four
people were killed in bombings and clashes in the strife-torn country.
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| British soldiers secure an area while conducting a security
operation in the Iraqi southern city of Basra, on February 16. US-led
coalition forces plan to quit Iraq in early 2007, as at least four people
were killed in bombings and clashes in the strife-torn country.
[AFP] |
Three men guarding a Sunni mosque in Baghdad were shot dead overnight when
gunmen dressed in police uniforms attacked the building, an interior ministry
official said, with six more guards wounded in the ensuing firefight.
News of the unrest, including an Iraqi soldier killed in a suicide car
bombing at a checkpoint in Mahmudiya, south of the capital, came amid persistent
reports that foreign troops would soon leave the country.
Two British newspapers, the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Mirror, quoting
unnamed senior British Army sources, said the coalition intended to reduce its
presence on the ground over the next 12 months, while withdrawing forces into
bases, and then pull out all remaining troops simultaneously.
Washington and London believe that maintaining their military presence is
counter-productive as foreign forces are increasingly viewed as occupation
troops, even though they remain at the Iraqi government's request, the papers
said.
But a US military spokesman in Baghdad Sunday dismissed the report of a
deadline for a US troop pull-out.
"The news report on a withdrawal of forces within a set timeframe is
completely false," said Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson.
"As we've said over and over again, any withdrawal will be linked to the
ability of the Iraqi security forces to maintain domestic order on behalf of a
representative Iraqi government that respects the rights of all its citizens.
This is an ongoing assessment and not linked to any timeframe," he added.
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