Sunday, March 8, 2009
Some 12,000 Americans and 4,000 British soldiers will leave Iraq in September, announced on Sunday the U.S. military, shortly after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives next to police officers who were front row at the entrance to the academy Police in Baghdad, killing 32 people and injuring dozens, authorities said.
As for the announced withdrawal of allied troops, Gen. David Perkins said it will reduce combat units in the United States from 14 to 12 brigades. He added that the U.S. military is handing over to the Army military installations in Iraq as part of the withdrawal of forces.
The U.S. president Barack Obama has said that all combat troops from Iraq will end in August 2010 and that the remaining troops will leave by the end of 2011. The 4,000 British troops will leave Iraq will be the last to remain in this Arab nation.
There are currently some 135,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. With the departure of 12,000, there are still 123,000 troops in the country.
Hours earlier on Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a side entrance of the academy, which is in a mostly Shiite area of the capital. A police officer said the attacker was on a motorcycle when he approached the row of policemen, but the Interior Ministry said that the method of attack had not yet been determined.
Three medical officers and a policeman were in the area said 32 people died, including 19 soldiers and some 60 wounded. Another police officer at the Interior Ministry said 28 died and 57 were injured.
The blast was a bloody reminder of the ability of insurgents to launch spectacular attacks in time when the U.S. begins to reduce its forces in Iraq. Extremists have targeted their attacks more and more Iraqi troops, who are trying to prove that they can take over the security of the country so that U.S. soldiers can be withdrawn.
The main police academy in Baghdad has been the target of several attacks. On January 1, another suicide bombing there killed 33 people.
Iraqi officials provided different figures of casualties, a common after attacks of this magnitude.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but usually the suicide attacks in Iraq are attributed to al-Qaida and other Sunni militias that seek to undermine public confidence in the safety improvements that have led to a considerable decline in violence.
