Iraqi President promises US troops out by end of year

Michael Rowland
The World Today
Thursday, 3 August , 2006

ELEANOR HALL: In a statement which appears to have taken the Bush administration by surprise, Iraq's President has told a news conference today that US led forces will be out of his country by the end of the year.

President Jalal Talabani's announcement comes less than a week after US President George W. Bush met Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, and agreed to strengthen the US military presence in Baghdad, after an upsurge in what Mr Bush described as terrible violence.

More than 8,000 people have died in mostly sectarian attacks in Iraq in the last three months. And of the more than 50 people killed in bomb blasts yesterday, several were children who were at a Baghdad football game when two bombs exploded in the middle of the pitch.

But despite the violence, the Iraqi President is insisting that a transfer of authority from US led troops to Iraqi forces across the country will be completed by the end of 2006.

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I'll believe it when I see it.

Anonymous