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IRAQ WARS
US withdrawal from Iraq "on track" despite violence: Mullen

Two Pentagon workers die in Baghdad's Green Zone
One American civilian and a person working for the Pentagon died inside central Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone in unrelated incidents, the US military said on Saturday. The body of a US citizen working for the US Department of Defence (DoD) was found dead in the Green Zone, while another of unidentified nationality was killed by a rocket attack on the Green Zone on Friday night, it said. "A rocket landed inside the GZ, north of the embassy, around 8:15 pm yesterday. One DoD civilian was killed in the attack," Major Jose Lopez told AFP, adding that it could not confirm if the civilian was American. There were no further details about the American Pentagon employee who was found dead, as a criminal investigation was pending, Lopez said. It was not immediately known whether the dead people were male or female. The report of the deaths came as Iraq has begun removing blast barriers in the Green Zone, which is home to Iraqi government offices and a number of foreign missions including the US embassy. Insurgents used to routinely launch attacks on the Green Zone but the last reported attack was in November, when a suicide bomber blew herself up in a corridor leading into the area, killing five people. The Iraqi ministry also said that a mortar bomb hit an undisclosed location in the Green Zone on Saturday but that no-one was injured. Iraq has seen significant improvements in security over the past year but bombings are still common in the capital and other restive areas. This week at least 66 people died in a string of attacks in Baghdad and the troubled northern city of Kirkuk, only weeks before the US military is scheduled to depart urban areas at the end of next month. On January 1, the United States transferred security control of the 14.5-square-kilometre (5.6-square-mile) area on the west bank of the Tigris -- a symbol of the American-led occupation -- to Iraqi forces.
by Staff Writers
 Washington (AFP) May 24, 2009
 The withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraqi cities by the end of June remains "very much on track" despite a spike in violence there, the top US military officer said Sunday.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said US force levels in Iraq would drop to between 35,000 and 50,000 troops by August of 2010.

"We've had an uptick in violence, but the overall violence levels are at the 2003 levels. It's still fragile," Mullen said.

His comments came at the end of a week that saw a wave of violence in Iraq, with suicide attackers and bombings killing 26 people on Thursday, including three US soldiers, and a huge blast claiming 40 lives in a Shiite area of Baghdad the day before.

The killings have raised fears that Iraq will burst into violence again after US combat troops depart the cities as scheduled by June 30, and amid withdrawal of all US troops by the end of 2011.

Mullen acknowledged that "we have to constantly keep an eye on that," noting that Al-Qaeda in Iraq remains active.

But he said "we're still very much on a track in terms of pulling the forces out of the cities, which is the end of next month."

"We're on track to decrease the number of troops down to 35,000 to 50,000 in August of 2010," he said.

There are still about 139,000 US troops in Iraq.

"There's an awful lot of political positioning and political debate that's going on right now, and I think that in great part becomes the essence of how Iraq moves forward," Mullen said.

"I'm actually positive about what the Iraqi security forces have done, their army and their police in terms of providing for their own security. They've improved dramatically," he said.

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IRAQ WARS
US on track to exit Iraqi cities by end June: commander
 Washington (AFP) May 8, 2009
 US forces are on track to pull out of all Iraqi cities by the end of June in line with a deal struck with Iraq, Washington's top commander in the country said on Friday. "We're basically out of all the cities except for two, Baghdad and Mosul," General Ray Odierno said, indicating that city-based operations could wrap up by a June 30 target date. "We are on our way out of Baghdad, and we ... read more






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