'Not long' before US troop withdrawal [View All]

[sabra]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20275016-1702,00.html

'Not long' before US troop withdrawal

IRAQ'S Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said overnight it "will not be long " before US troops can start withdrawing from his country but would not commit to a timetable.

Mr Maliki told CNN Iraqi security forces were growing stronger alongside the 138,000 US troops still in Iraq nearly three-and-a-half years after the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

"The more our security agencies have developed, the less the period will be for the (American) forces to remain," Mr Maliki said through an interpreter.

"And I think this period will not be long because we have begun to have security responsibility in the provinces," he said, according to the translation provided by CNN.

...

"I don't want to commit to a certain time or a certain period, but I want to make my best efforts to decrease this time," he said. "It could be a year or less, or a few months.