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Vol. 73/No. 20      May 25, 2009

 
U.S. troops to patrol cities in
Iraq past ‘pullout deadline’
(front page)
 
BY SETH GALINSKY  
At a Pentagon news conference May 8, Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, announced that as many as 20 percent of U.S. troops will remain on patrol in some Iraqi cities beyond the June 30 deadline for withdrawing outside city limits.

Odierno also said that there are now 134,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, more than before the start of the so-called surge in 2007, and double the number currently in Afghanistan.

Even the figure of 20 percent is questionable as Camp Victory, with 20,000 U.S. troops and much of the base inside Baghdad city limits, has been classified as outside the city. The base is a 15-minute drive from downtown Baghdad.

“It changes every day,” Odierno said, when pushed to give an exact figure for how many U.S. troops are operating inside major cities. “I could give you a number today; it will be different tomorrow, it will be different the next day. Okay?”

U.S. president Barack Obama has promised that he will withdraw all but a garrison force of 50,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by August 2010.

Odierno said that in the last three weeks, U.S. troops have arrested 200 Iraqis to undermine groups that have carried out recent attacks against U.S. forces.

While Odierno claimed that U.S. troops are out of most cities and “on our way out of Baghdad,” he said that “a major operation” is continuing in Mosul in northern Iraq.

“We’re still clearing Mosul,” he said. “It’s neighborhood by neighborhood.”

Meanwhile, Iraqi oil ministry spokesperson Assem Jihad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced they had reached an agreement that would allow the Kurdish government to export oil for the first time.

Ashti Hawrami, the KRG minister for natural resources, stated in an announcement that 60,000 barrels a day will be piped from the Tawke oil field starting June 1. Production of 40,000 barrels a day shipped by truck from the Taq-Taq field will start later in the month.

According to Hawrami and Jihad, the revenues from the oil will go through the Iraqi central government. No details have been released on what percentage of the oil sales earnings will be given to the Kurdish government.

Heritage Oil announced May 7 that it had discovered a new oil field in Kurdistan that could contain 4 billion barrels of oil.

Sharp disputes between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central government in Baghdad blocked the export of oil from Kurdistan until now. Although the regional government controls the oil fields in Kurdistan, the only pipeline capable of handling production lies outside the Kurdish areas and is under the control of Baghdad.
 
 
Related articles:
Afghans protest war, bombings of villages
U.S. warplanes kill more than 100 civilians
Toilers bear brunt of Pakistani offensive
U.S. troops out of Afghanistan!  
 
 
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