Deadly blast hits Baghdad as troops plan exit

About 12,000 US soldiers and 4,000 British soldiers will leave Iraq by September, it was announced, hours after a Baghdad suicide bomber killed about 30 people in a chilling reminder of the nation’s still-shaky security.

The US troops will be removed from Baghdad and Anbar province – once the main battlefields of the war. All 4,000 British soldiers in southern Iraq are also due to leave.