Iraq

Iraq ready for US troop withdrawal

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has announced the readiness of the country’s forces in taking over security after US troop pullout from Iraq by the year’s end.

“Our forces have become able to control the security situation. With the withdrawal, we (Iraq and the US) will turn a page that was dominated by military (relations) and start a new stage built on diplomatic cooperation,” AFP quoted Maliki as saying on Saturday during a press conference in Baghdad.

He further said a number of US military forces and security contractors would remain in Iraq for a specific period of time but stressed that they would not be granted any form of legal immunity.

The announcement came a day after US President Barack Obama declared a full withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year, as agreed in the 2008 security pact signed with Baghdad under his predecessor George W. Bush.

“After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” Obama said on Friday.

Earlier Press TV reported that the US is planning to set up an underground hangar complex in Iraq, as agreed upon by American officials and an unnamed Iraqi contractor.

According to the report, the US has reportedly moved some 150 aircrafts to Iraq’s western Anbar Province from a military base in Qatar.

The US and its allies invaded Iraq in 2003 under the pretext that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. However, no such weapons were found in the country.

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