U.S. to Send Home Thousands More Troops From Iraq

Published September 29, 2009

| AP

The top general in Iraq is sending home thousands more U.S. troops by the end of October as the American military pulls back from the six-year war.

Gen. Ray Odierno says in prepared congressional testimony that the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq will total about 120,000 over the next month.

He said that will mean about 4,000 fewer troops than are in Iraq now -- about the size of an Army brigade.

Odierno was to announce the drawdown Wednesday at a meeting of the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives. The Associated Press obtained a copy of his prepared remarks.

A Defense Department official confirmed Odierno was expected to announce the long-anticipated drawdown at the House hearing.

In his eight-page statement, Odierno cited data showing that the monthly number of attacks in Iraq have dramatically dropped over the last two years, from more than 4,000 in August 2007 to about 600 last month. He also said that far fewer al-Qaida and foreign fighters remain in Iraq, and most of those who are left are criminals and disenfranchised Iraqis who have been recruited by what Odierno described as a "small ideological core" of insurgents.

Despite cautious optimism, Odierno's outlook of the nation he called an enduring U.S. interest was far from rosy.

He predicted several looming problems as U.S. troops prepare to end combat missions by September 2010 and leave Iraq at the end of 2011.

The pair of Aug. 19 truck bombings at Iraq's finance and foreign ministries, which killed about 100 people in Baghdad, revealed "a clear security lapse," Odierno said.

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