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| Iraq |
| Iraq will ask US troops to stay post-2011, says Panetta |
| 2011-06-11 |
| Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to Iraq we go Iraq will ask the US to keep troops in the country beyond an end-of-2011 pullout deadline, says the nominee to be the next US defence secretary. Outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta said he had "every confidence that a request like that will be forthcoming". Mr Panetta was speaking at a US Senate committee considering his nomination. The US currently has about 47,000 troops in Iraq, none in a combat role. Under a 2008 deal, they are expected to leave by 31 December 2011. "It's clear to me that Iraq is considering the possibility of making a request for some kind of [troop] presence to remain there [in Iraq]," Mr Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. He said that whether that happened depended on what Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki might ask for. But if Baghdad did make such a request, he added, Washington should say yes. The little heads at the Daily Kos are exploding... Mr Panetta did not say how many troops would be involved or what they would do. He said there were still some 1,000 al-Qaeda members in Iraq, and the situation remained "fragile". |
| Posted by:tipper |