BAGHDAD, Dec. 4, 2008
It's Official: U.S. Timetable In Iraq OK'd
Iraq's Presidential Council Signs Off On Security Pact Giving U.S. 3 Years To Leave
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As the final legal hurdle to the deal was cleared, American soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike faced another round of deadly bombings by insurgents trying to chip away at recent security gains.
Two suicide bombers in explosives-laden trucks took aim at police stations in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 100, Iraqi officials said.
A suicide car bomber also killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded nine Iraqi civilians near a checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said.
Iraq's parliament signed off on the deal last week following months of tough talks between U.S. and Iraqi negotiators that at times seemed on the point of collapse. The entire process has been fraught with hardscrabble dealmaking between ethnic and sectarian groups.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama called Iraq's prime minister and stressed his commitment to a responsible withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, the government said. During Wednesday's call, Mr. Obama thanked Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Iraqi government for its efforts in gaining
parliament's approval.
In Washington, the White House also welcomed Thursday's decision.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the Iraqi presidential council's approval Thursday sets a path for American troops to come home and called the agreement a "remarkable achievement for both of our countries."
Under the deal, which goes into effect Jan. 1, U.S. forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30 and the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012. But the agreement includes the caveat that it should go before voters in a referendum by the end of July - when the deal will already be in effect.
That was a concession to Sunni demands and means the agreement could be rejected next year if, for example, anti-U.S. anger builds and demands for an immediate withdrawal grow. By that time, however, American troops will likely have left urban areas and will be a less intrusive presence.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and his two deputies Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, signed the accord at their headquarters in Baghdad, council spokesman Nasser al-Ani told The Associated Press.
Iraq also will gain strict oversight over the nearly 150,000 American troops now on the ground, representing a step toward full sovereignty for Iraq and a shift from the sense of frustration and humiliation that many Iraqis feel at the presence of American troops on their soil for so many years.
Followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr opposed the measure, demanding an immediate withdrawal, and the Shiite leader has called for peaceful protests against the continued presence of American forces in Iraq.
In other developments:
The U.S. military has warned that the security gains of the past year remain fragile.
In Fallujah, the apparently coordinated blasts struck within minutes of each other outside the concrete barriers surrounding two police stations in different sections of Fallujah.
An al Qaeda front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on a Web site used by militants.
A senior Iraqi police officer in Fallujah said one of the blasts leveled a police station and damaged several nearby houses. A police station in central Fallujah was also struck, he said.
"I was drinking tea in my house when a big explosion took place. It was like an earthquake," said Saad Ibrahim, a 34-year-old mechanic who lives near one of the police stations. "I could hear the cry of a child trapped in a house ... we tried to help him, but the police and firefighters arrived and asked us to leave the area."
Police and hospital officials gave the casualty toll on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
The U.S. military said initial reports showed that 13 people were wounded, including nine Iraqi policemen, when two car bombs exploded in Fallujah. Conflicting casualty tolls are common in the chaotic aftermath of such attacks.
Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, is in Anbar province and saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war before local Sunni tribal leaders joined forces with the Americans against al Qaeda in Iraq.
The city, which is largely sealed off by checkpoints, has been relatively peaceful in recent months but attacks have continued.
Northeast of Baghdad, a bomb left on a parked motorcycle exploded near a restaurant in Baqouba, killing three people, according to police at the security headquarters for the surrounding Diyala province.
In a separate development, an unmanned U.S. surveillance plane crashed on the runway at the Balad Air Base, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to a statement by the U.S. Air Force.
It said the MQ-1 Predator assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing crashed about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, but the extent of the damage was unknown.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 53 CommentsStop TRYING to be clever with your idiotic comments and also stop pretending like you actually care about how many are dying in Iraq.
Stop TRYING to be clever with your idiotic comments and also stop pretending like you actually care about how many are dying in Iraq.
Posted by lobo62740 at 08:38 AM
Easy for you to say. Your old unit isn''t over there fighting now. You don''t have friends getting shot at...
At least your last comment had some meaning unlike the previous ones.
Posted by lobo62740 at 08:59 AM
Give me a hint as to what you would like to hear. What is America fighting for in Iraq, and remember now, you can''t use (oil, WMD''s, muslim''s freedom). Those theories have all been used already....
Posted by lobo62740 at 08:59 AM
Give me a hint as to what you would like to hear. What is America fighting for in Iraq, and remember now, you can''''t use (oil, WMD''''s, muslim''''s freedom). Those theories have all been used already....
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Posted by earache4 at 09:04 AM : Dec 04, 2008
You forgot my group, the one that wanted Saddam "ousted" the first time around, I wasn''t changing my stance just because it''s under George Jr. I wish Clinton would have, maybe we would not be so involved in the Middle East if we hadn''t had to run the "no-fly zone" and set up all the bases in the Middle East to do it. OBL really hated that.
Posted by lobo62740 at 09:19 AM
No good original ideas as to why American troops are dying in Iraq? Is there someone else there I can talk to?
Posted by promaclaura at 09:23 AM
Sadam''s long gone. Why are American troops still dying in Iraq. (by the way, that''s an old worn out excuse as well)...
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Posted by earache4 at 09:26 AM : Dec 04, 2008
I think the planning for post Saddam was bad. I don''t think you get much Iraqi support if you come in,"clean up the town" and drive off. When the strategy changed to come in, "clean up the town" and stay, the Iraqi''s can develop their government and train their military/police forces. The locals need to feel safer if they''re going to weed out insurgents and foreign terrorists.
Posted by BailThisOut
That''s exactly right. Things didn''t go as planned for the Bush regime and if you remember, when our allies figured out Iraq was a manufactured war, they pulled most, if not all of their troops.
When the Bush regime decided to invade Iraq--they pulled all their intelligence out of Afganistan--thus giving Bin Laden a free ride out of Tora Bora.
The United Stated cannot take on all terrorists on their own nor can we be the agressor as we have been in Iraq. The world need unity of the UN and all of their intelligence as well.
By not holding Bush responsible for the Iraq war, we have done a great disservice to over 4000 dead troops, over 100,000 maimed troops, over 600,000 dead Iraqi civilians and over 4 million displaced.
Bush has been a tragic, tragic assault on the world.
Now that everyone is talking about transfering military personel and attention to Afghanistan the insurgents are again increasing violence in Iraq.
This can, and will, continue for years.
That is what happens when there is no specific government/country to fight.
The Iraq fiasco has NEVER been an actual war; legal or illigal.
HAD NOT WON THE WAR IN IRAQ?
REPUBLICON"s SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES!
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Posted by pythoncharly
All those troops that are Republican should be ashamed of themselves. Pathetic how you label our fighting men and women securing your freedoms. You mock them for their sacrafice. You are no better than those terrorists. Shame on you.
Posted by BailThisOut at 11:00 AM : Dec 04, 2008
Bush/Chenney junta are pleased with themselves. Our brave are suffering. The "deep pocket" defense contructors are laughing all the way to the bank, and we - the little p*e*e ons - arguing about everything.
The fact of the matter is, countries like Iraq will NEVER have democracy. NEVER. That is the nature of the beast and I don''t give a $hit what Bush & junta is trying to stuff down our throats. We, as a country, are in a divided mess caused by the lies of this yellow coward.
America can BUY this company for 5.5 billion, install competent leadership for a reasonable salary and produce electric vehicles with the EV technology they buried in 1995 and tell the sheiks to lube with their oil and pound sand, putting MILLIONS of Americans to work on new and innovative industry, all for a fraction of the LOAN amount.
Problem solved.
NEXT!
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Posted by getoffmine1
why are we still there? YOU MAKE IT SOUND LIKE YOU ARE THERE, PLUS YOU SHOULD WRITE AN EMAIL AND ASK THE PRESIDENT ELECT THIS SAME QUESTION BECAUSE HE CAMPAIGNED FOR IMMEDIATE REMOVAL.
What do you think?
Now what are all these GOP chicken hawks going to do now?
Posted by promaclaura at 10:01 AM
Planning? What planning?
Posted by hotpaulie at 12:09 PM : Dec 04, 2008
Yes. And they will continue once we are gone, but then we will no longer be there to hear of them.
If a bomb explodes in Baghdad but there is no one from CNN there to report on it, will it kill anyone?
What do you think?
Posted by BailThisOut at 12:45 PM : Dec 04, 2008
since my tax dollars are paying for it, and chances are i am probably paying a good deal more then you are, I don''t need to be there for it to be my problem. The President Elect needs to honor his word and get the troops out, screw the agreement get them all out now. Let the middle East become China''s and Russia''s problem. Then maybe China would be so busy stopping terrorism in their own country they would not have time to steal technology from us. And more importantly it would save 10 billion a month!
What do you think?
Posted by BailThisOut at 12:45 PM : Dec 04, 2008
We are still there typical neo con bait and switch. I am so sick of it as a swing voter a middle of the roader so to say I have heard enough from the Rush, Sean, Bill, Ann, Glen, and etc. crowd. Enough already this nonsense has gotten the GOP what they deserved and if they keep it up 2010 will be just as bad.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Did you take acid today? or did you forget your medication? You can get help for your problem.
What do you think?
Posted by BailThisOut at 12:45 PM : Dec 04, 2008
We are still there typical neo con bait and switch. I am so sick of it as a swing voter a middle of the roader so to say I have heard enough from the Rush, Sean, Bill, Ann, Glen, and etc. crowd. Enough already this nonsense has gotten the GOP what they deserved and if they keep it up 2010 will be just as bad.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
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Posted by antoniof123
So it does not bother you that Obama lied about getting our troops out of Iraq? HUH.
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Posted by getoffmine1
Your money - huh. Be more patriotic as Joe Biden said and support our troops. LOL
A considerable number of people voted for Obama because he promised to get the US out of Iraq within MONTHS of taking office and now we''re a getting totally different line from him. It''s a huge middle finger to the folks the voted for him because he gave that promise.
"Oh this president will be different" Yea right!!
New Title==Obusha
Posted by jamesm12341 at 01:26 PM
you should probably apologize to your parents for growing up such a loser
Posted by jamesm12341 at 07:00 PM
bailout, you, boosh, cheney and powell are the liars. Quoting Obama during campaign:
"THE call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States."
Feel free and explain where he said immediate withdrawal nutjobs.
Oh and by the way, the world quit listening to reich wing nutjobs after they ruined everything the US stands for.
Disgusting hopefully I dont have to go back there for a Third tour.
I will have my 5 gallon water jug bath.
As far as Im concerned, I feel sold out, middle east has different ways of dealing with justice, and the security pact sucks, I feel sold out. I dont think we should be in jurisdiction of Iraqi control if we do something wrong.
Let them kill each other I dont care, but the Sunnis will run the country again and Saudi will make sure of it.
The big major difference here is middle east has eye for an eye. They can use this SOFA agreement in lots of different scenarios.
Look what happened in Iran the other day, a man poored acid into a young womans eyes that didnt want to marry him, his punishment will be acid in his eyes.
It needs to be divided into three countries then there will be piece there,
Thats what needs to be done
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