WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Senior White House and military officials said U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus may be open to withdrawing about 4,000 troops from Iraq in January.
The officials said Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is open to pulling a brigade from the country but is wary of further troop cuts and wants to maintain high troop levels in the country well into 2008 to hold on to fragile security gains made in Baghdad, Anbar Province and other areas, The New York Times reported Friday.
Officials involved in preparing Petraeus’s upcoming testimony before Congress said the general plans to discuss the possibility of slowly withdrawing troops from Iraq over the course of several months in 2008 until levels reach about 130,000, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq at the start of 2007.
Petraeus “is worried about risk, and all things being equal he’d like to keep as much as he could for as long as he could,” a senior military officer told the Times.
The general is scheduled to testify Monday before Congress.
