US combat mission in Iraq to end on schedule

President Barack Obama pledged yesterday that the United States will end its combat mission in Iraq as scheduled on August 31 despite a recent flare-up in violence.

Mr Obama told a veterans group meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, that he would meet the deadline he established shortly after taking office “for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility”.

“I made it clear that by August 31, 2010, America’s combat mission in Iraq would end,” he told the group. “And that is exactly what we are doing – as promised, on schedule.”

When he became President, Mr Obama inherited a security agreement with Baghdad that calls for all US forces to pull out by the end of 2011.

There are about 65,000 US soldiers currently stationed in Iraq and President Obama has ordered the force to draw down to 50,000 by September 1.

He said the withdrawal would be “one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades”.

His comments yesterday came amid increasing violence in Iraq, with the Baghdad government releasing figures on Saturday that said 535 people died in July, including 396 civilians, 89 policemen and 50 soldiers.

That figure was the highest for a single month since May 2008 when 563 people were killed in violence.

But Major General Stephen Lanza, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq, said the Iraqi figures did not “reflect the security situation” while data provided to media by unofficial sources were “grossly overstated”.

Mr Obama said that even as militants try to derail the country’s progress, “violence in Iraq continues to be near the lowest it’s been in years”.

He said the US will maintain a transitional force in Iraq in the coming months and remove all of its troops by the end of 2011.

“And during this period, our forces will have a focused mission: supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts,” he said.