Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis on Tuesday their own soldiers and police are up to the job as US occupation forces ended a combat role after seven years of fighting that has cost thousands of lives.
A major troop pullout over past months has left less than 50,000 US soldiers in Iraq while a simultaneous surge in car bombings and shootings, many targeting local security forces, has raised security concerns.
US President Barack Obama was to mark the symbolic end of combat operations in a speech from the Oval Office at 0000 GMT (3 am on Wednesday for Baghdadis), after visiting a base in Texas where he was to meet returned Iraq veterans. He was also expected to speak by telephone with former president George W. Bush who, backed by key ally Britain, took the decision to invade Iraq in March 2003.
In advance of Obama's speech, Maliki said on state television that Iraq was a "sovereign and independent" state and he was confident the last US forces would leave the country as planned at the end of 2011. "I reassure you that the Iraqi security forces are capable of taking full responsibility," Maliki said. "Unfortunately we are facing a campaign of doubt."
US Vice President Joe Biden landed in Baghdad on Monday night to mark the American military's change of mission from combat to training and advisory tasks for Iraqi forces, starting from Wednesday. He was due to meet President Jalal Talabani, Maliki and the former premier and March 7 election winner Iyad Allawi as well as other top politicians throughout Tuesday.
Tony Blinken, Biden's National Security Adviser, said the current caretaker administration in Baghdad was not a "durable solution." "There is some growing sense of urgency that government formation move forward, and certainly the vice president is going to urge the leaders to bring this process to a conclusion," Blinken told reporters.
Source: http://islamonline.com
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