Obama visits Iraq, calls for transition of power to Iraqis
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Baghdad, April 8, IRNA -- President Obama made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday, declaring it time for U.S. troops to start leaving and Iraqis to take complete charge of their country.
Most U.S. forces are to withdraw from their bases in Iraqi cities this summer. Obama has pushed for all U.S. combat brigades to leave by August 2010. His plan would "ultimately result in the removal of all U.S. troops by 2011," he said.
Addressing hundreds of cheering U.S. soldiers just days before the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Obama added, "It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis."
"They need to take responsibility for their country," he told troops who greeted him at Al Faw Palace, Saddam Hussein residence inside the Baghdad airport complex.
Obama campaigned for office on a pledge to end the war here, which has cost the lives of 4,266 U.S. troops and many thousands of Iraqis. Instead, he is seeking to focus U.S. attention on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama has banked on a reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq as he seeks to add 21,000 troops in Afghanistan.
The trip was Obama's first presidential visit to a combat zone. It came after a week of summits and one-on-one meetings with world leaders as he unveiled a new U.S. foreign policy.
"I opposed the war in Iraq. I thought it was a bad idea. Now that we're there, I have a responsibility to make sure that as we bring troops out that we do so in a careful enough way that we don't see a complete collapse into violence," Obama said in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad.
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