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| Bush backs Iraq withdrawal freeze |
| US President George W Bush says he will put a freeze on the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, as requested by his top general in the country
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 10-April-2008
11:45:24 AM |
| In a statement the president said the "drawdown" would continue until July as planned, but then the military would need time to assess the next step.
He said he had told his senior commander General David Petraeus "he'll have all the time he needs".
Mr Bush also said a "major strategic shift" had occurred in Iraq.
He said the past 15 months had seen military and political progress, and that "today we have the initiative".
Mr Bush also said he was cutting tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan from 15 to 12 months, effective from 1 August, and that service personnel would have a year at home for every year served overseas.
Progress
In testimony on Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, Gen Petraeus said progress had been made in Iraq but many challenges remained.
He said the suspension of troop withdrawals after July would allow a period of reassessment.
Gen Petraeus told the House panel he was unlikely to call for another build-up of troops in Iraq even if the security situation deteriorated after some troops came home
"That would be a pretty remote thought in my mind," he said.
He has said a planned "drawdown" of about 20,000 troops should continue to July, but afterwards there should be a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation" before any more troops leave.
Gen Petraeus could not say how many US troops would be in Iraq at the end of the year. There are currently 160,000 in Iraq.
Graph of US troops and military deaths
Asked about progress made by Iraqi security forces, Gen Petraeus said they were "a very, very mixed bag across the board".
As for the recent Iraqi-led operation against militias in Basra, the US commander said it was "far too soon to say that Basra has succeeded or has failed" and that the confrontation was likely to go on for months.
in heavy fig
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