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Report: Iraqi Senior Officer Wants US Troops to Stay Until 2020

   VOA News 12 August 2010

   A  published  report  quotes  Iraq's most senior officer as saying the
   United States should leave its troops in Iraq until 2020.
   Britain's  Daily  Telegraph  on  Thursday  quoted Lieutenant  General
   Babakir  Zebari as saying it will be another 10 years before the Iraqi
   army  will  be  able  to  ensure  the  country's  security. Zebari was
   speaking at a defense conference in Baghdad. Â
   White  House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the United States is on track
   to  end its combat mission in Iraq at the end of the month as planned.
   He  said  President  Barack Obama is satisfied that the Iraqi military
   will be able to take over security operations.
   Fifty-thousand  U.S.  troops  will  remain  in  Iraq  to  serve  as  a
   transitional  force.   Mr.  Obama has set a goal of removing all U.S.
   troops in Iraq by the end of 2011.
   Also,  Iraqi  officials  said eight Iraqi soldiers and three civilians
   were  killed  in Diyala province when gunmen broke into a house in the
   town of Sadiyah and killed three people. Police say the attackers then
   lured Iraqi soldiers to the house before an explosion destroyed it.
   And  a  government  official  said  gunmen shot and killed a prominent
   female  doctor in Baghdad.  The official said the victim was chief of
   the Alwiyah maternity hospital in central Baghdad. Â

   Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.

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