US troops pull out of Baghdad, Iraq
The U.S. military forces in Baghdad continued pulling out of the city to meet the deadline of the U.S., Baghdad agreement signed last year that gives full control of Baghdad to the Iraqi military.
131,000 U.S. troops will be stationed outside of Baghdad in accordance with Iraqi officials while a minimal number of U.S. forces will remain in the cities to continue the training of Iraqi soldiers and police forces, numbering approximately 750,000. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, expressed his confidence in the U.S. trained Iraq forces of keeping Baghdad safe from the Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. “The U.S. forces, in addition to being, I think, the best fighting forces, are also some of the best trainers in the world, and we’ve worked very hard with the Iraqi forces, and we think they are ready for this,” Hill said.
The pull out comes after six civilians were killed in Baghdad yesterday from two sepearte car bombings by insurgents.
Due to President Obama’s withdrawl plan, most of the remaining American troops will be pulled out of Iraq by the end of August 2010 and all American forces will withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
