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Iraq insists on withdrawal timetable for US troops

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-09 10:23

However, it also would provide the United States some flexibility on timing because the dates of the provincial handovers are not set.

Some type of troop status agreement between the United States and Iraq is needed to keep US troops in Iraq after a UN mandate expires at year's end.

Related readings:  Iraq may set pullout timetable for US  Bush urges Brown not to set Iraq pullout timetable  McCain believes Iraq war can be won by 2013  Five years on, Bush again talks of Iraq victory

Iraq's government has felt increasingly confident in recent weeks about its authority and the country's improved stability. Iraqi officials have sharpened their public stance in the negotiations considerably in just the last few days.

Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in four years. The change has been driven by the 2007 buildup of American forces, the Sunni tribal revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and crackdowns against Shiite militias and Sunni extremists.

In northern Baghdad Tuesday, guards opened fire, wounding 13 people when a crowd seeking aid payments for the poor, widows, orphans and disabled people became unruly, Iraqi officials said.

The US military said a soldier had died from injuries sustained when a roadside bomb hit a troop convoy in Baghdad.

The US military says five other soldiers were wounded in Tuesday's attack in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriyah.

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