WASHINGTON, 14 September 2005 — Iraq hopes to be able to replace some US troops deployed there by the end of next year, the country’s leader said yesterday after talks in Washington with US President George W. Bush. “We hope that by the end of 2006, our security forces are up to the level of taking responsibility from many American troops, with complete agreement with Americans,” President Jalal Talabani said at a White House press conference.
The Iraqi leader rejected calls for a reduction in America’s military presence in Iraq prior to that time. “We don’t want to give any signal to the terrorists that our will to defeat them is weakened or they can defeat us,” he said. His statement was at odds with one published in an interview yesterday with the Washington Post, in which he said the United States could withdraw up to 50,000 soldiers from Iraq by the end of 2005. Talabani told the daily there are enough trained Iraqi forces prepared to begin assuming control in cities throughout the country.
“We think that America has the full right to move some forces from Iraq to their country because I think we can replace them (with) our forces,” Talabani told the Post. “In my opinion, at least from 40,000 to 50,000 American troops can be (withdrawn) by the end of this year,” he told the Post.
Meanwhile, four Iraqi private security guards were killed and two wounded in a roadside bombing outside the main southern city of Basra yesterday, police said, in the latest attack to hit the normally quiet region. British troops, which patrol the area, confirmed there had been casualties in the blast on the city’s southern outskirts.
Iraqi and US troops went house to house in their search for insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar yesterday after the rebels melted away in the face of their massive assault, the US military said. US Maj. James Gallivan said some 150 suspected rebels had been killed and more than 400 captured in the assault on Tal Afar, where Sunni Arab insurgents had held sway for months.
One Iraqi police commando was killed and three wounded in a bomb blast in the north of the town. The commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Col. H.B McMaster, said US and government troops were now in full control of the town after the rebels melted away into the civilian population. Among those captured were some 30 foreign fighters, including around 20 Syrians, four Afghans and two Saudis, an Iraqi lieutenant colonel told AFP.
McMaster said he expected it to take several more days to mop up resistance before residents ordered out of their homes could be allowed to return.
