Iraqi Prime Minister insists on troop pullout; 25 people killed in suicide bomb attack; US hands over Anbar province to Iraqi security forces; US military: 11,000 detainees released
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    • Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted that all foreign soldiers leave Iraq by a specific date in 2011 and rejected legal immunity for American troops. US and Iraqi officials had in the previous week agreed tentatively to a schedule that included a broad pullout of combat troops by the end of 2011, with the possibility that a residual US force might stay behind to continue training and advising Iraqi security services. Al-Maliki's remarks however indicated that his government was not satisfied with that arrangement. However, White House spokesman Tony Fratto stated that negotiations with the Iraqis were continuing and repeated the US position that the withdrawal must be linked to conditions in Iraq1.

    In continuing violence, a suicide bomber killed 25 people and injured more than 40 others in an attack in the Sunni-majority province of Diyala. Iraqi forces had detained hundreds of people in the province in operations against Sunni insurgents since the previous month2. Elsewhere in Diyala, five members of a Sunni family, including two women and two children, were killed when a roadside bomb struck their van near the town of Mandali3.

    US forces meanwhile handed over the responsibility for the security of Anbar Province to the Iraqi forces. Anbar was once a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency and was one of the most violent regions in Iraq. The transfer would also be the first in a province bordering Baghdad. Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, a spokesman for the Marine Corps in Anbar, stated that the number of US troops had dropped to 25,000 from 37,000 in February, and that the Iraqi police force had grown to 28,000, up from 5,000 three years ago4.

    In other developments, US military stated that it had released 11,000 detainees from its prisons in Iraq so far in the current year. Maj. Neal Fisher, spokesman for the US military's detainee operations in Iraq noted that “the goal of more than 12,000 releases for 2008” would be reached by mid-September. Earlier in the month, Iraq's human rights ministry pointed out that around 47,400 detainees were held in US and Iraqi prisons across the country, including 23,200 in facilities operated by the American military5.

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