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December 22, 2011

Dozens Killed, Wounded in Iraq Bombings 
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Dozens of people have been killed and many more wounded in a series of
bombings in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The death toll so far stands
at 63, with another 185 injured. The attacks come as Iraq grapples with
the aftermath of the U.S. military withdrawal and heightened sectarian
tensions with an arrest warrant for Iraqi Vice-President and leading
Sunni political Tariq al-Hashimi. At a news conference on Wednesday,
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki was asked about the ongoing U.S.
presence in Iraq with a massive embassy in Baghdad.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki: "Perhaps some people say that the
number [of U.S. embassy staff] is big. It is 2,000 or 3,000 employees. A
part of this number represents Iraqi desire. For example, we asked them
to provide us with agricultural experience, therefore we will need
agricultural experts. We asked them to provide us industrial expertise,
so we will need industrial experts. It is our demands that will be the
reason to increase or decrease the number of staff that will serve in
the U.S. embassy, but there will no forces."



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