10/11/2003

US to withdraw 25,000 troops from Iraq

One of the America's top soldiers has said that the US anticipates withdrawing around 25,000 of its troops from Iraq over the next seven months.

Vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen Peter Pace said that while the United States was in for "the long haul", force rotation would mean a cut from 130,000 today to about 105,000 in May 2004.

Gen Pace rejected the view that the US was withdrawing troops following a number of bloody set backs for the Americans. He said the scale down simply reflected the numbers of troops commanders needed "to get the job done".

He added: "[Since 9/11] we have been a nation at war and we are winning this war in Afghanistan. We are winning this war in Iraq. We are winning this war against the global networks and we will continue to do so.

"But it requires commitments of not only the individuals in uniform who are doing this, but our entire government and, indeed, our citizenry."

The vice chairman explained that the Iraqis taking over a greater share of the security burden will help the nation along the "path to self-government".

The US estimates that there will be around 150,000 Iraqis employed in the security services by June 2004, rising to about 200,000 by the end of the year. Iraq's security personnel currently numbers around 118,000 people.

(gmcg)

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