US to reduce troops in Iraq next year

[justinsb]

US to reduce troops in Iraq next year
by
Wednesday 27 July 2005 9:56 AM GMT
There are more than 130,000 American troops in Iraq

The commander of US forces in Iraq has said that US troop levels can be substantially reduced by early next year as a top Iraqi official said the US could hand over security in 10 cities by December.

"If the political process continues to go positively and if the development of the security forces continues to go on, I do believe that we will be able to make fairly substantial reductions after these elections, in the spring," said General George Casey on Wednesday.

He was speaking after talks with visiting US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other commanders.

"From now until the elections we hope to have transferred 10 major cities," Muwaffaq al-Rubai, the chairman of a new transition task force said.

General elections are scheduled for 15 December.

The handing over of security to newly-formed Iraqi forces was expected to be one of the main topics raised during Rumsfeld's surprise visit, said al-Rubai.

more: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8BAEBD14-1FE8-4936-BB03-21F2261D6390.htm