WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said the U.S. security plan has to work by the end of 2007, at which time U.S. forces should start being reduced.
"I would say that at the end of 2007, we really have to have made enough progress where we start to have the Iraqis in the lead, we move to the periphery and we start taking a very hard look at reducing our forces over here in Iraq," Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno told the American Forces Network in an interview aired Tuesday.
The U.S. security plan calls for an additional 7,000 American forces in Baghdad to bring the total of American troops to 31,000. They would join a total of 50,000 Iraqi troops, according to U.S. military officials. The American troops are the leading edge of a force of 22,500 additional soldiers and Marines who are scheduled to filter into Baghdad later this year.
Their primary task is to secure Baghdad and protect the Iraqi population from death squads and terrorist attacks.
Once Baghdad is secured, hopefully before the end of 2007, military training teams will be tripled in size and U.S. forces will transition to "more of a support role" on the periphery of the security mission, Odierno said.
Even as the U.S. military beefs up its presence in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed Monday that the British military -- the second largest contributor of forces in the dwindling coalition - is planning to withdraw troops this year.
"They are making a draw-down, planning a draw-down at some point this year in their forces in the south," Gates told reporters in Brussels Monday before he headed to Afghanistan. "The situation in the south and particularly in Basra is different than the situation is Baghdad. Our increase in forces is aimed very much and targeted in particular at the violence in Baghdad and we think that situation is a different situation than prevails in the south, and therefore the different response."
