U.S. withdrawal still on track, Iraqi PM says

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U.S. withdrawal still on track, Iraqi PM says
By Sinan Salaheddin - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 16, 2009 9:07:06 EST

BAGHDAD — Massive bombings and scattered daily violence won’t slow American troops from leaving Iraq by the end of 2011, Iraq’s prime minister said Wednesday.

Nouri al-Maliki blamed explosions in two major Iraqi cities a day earlier on al-Qaida extremists and former Baath Party loyalists. He said both groups, whom he blamed for three massive bombings since August, seek to derail Iraq’s fragile political process.

But the Dec. 31, 2011, deadline for the U.S. military withdrawal, he said, remains “in a final form, with fixed timetables.”

“It is something we underscore many times, and with the U.S. side as well,” al-Maliki said during an hour-long news conference in central Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone. “So the withdrawal will not be affected.”

Tuesday’s bombings killed nine people and wounded scores in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul. They happened one week after a series of suicide bombers in Baghdad killed 127 and injured more than 500.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_iraq_withdrawal_121609/