US troops may have to remain in Iraqi cities beyond next June

The top US commander in Iraq said yesterday that some US troops may remain in Iraqi cities after next June, even though a US-Iraq security pact calls for their withdrawal from urban areas by then.

US Army General Ray Odierno said troops operating alongside Iraqi forces out of shared urban bases could remain because the US military believed they were essentially supporting Iraqi forces rather than serving as combat troops.

"We believe that's part of our transition teams in the Joint Security Stations," Odierno told reporters travelling with visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates at a US military base in Balad, northwest of Baghdad. "We believe we should still be inside of those after the summer."

No Iraqi officials were immediately available for a comment.

The general's remarks came as controversy bubbled in Iraq over a government spokesman's suggestion that US forces might not fully withdraw from the country by the end of 2011, as agreed in the pact ratified by the Iraqi presidency on December 4.

Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, on a visit to Washington this week, said the Iraqi security forces might need 10 years to get ready to take over from US troops.

"What Dr Ali al-Dabbagh announced about Iraqi forces needing 10 years to be ready was a personal opinion and does not represent the Iraqi government opinion," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said in a statement.

Maliki's statement underscored the sensitivity of the future of US troops in Iraq as violence begins to ease more than five years after the 2003 invasion unleashed horrific bloodshed.

Reuters