US reaffirms commitment to pull out of Iraq by January

The US is abandoning plans to keep troops in Iraq past an end-of-year withdrawal deadline, it emerged today.

The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of US involvement in the Iraq war, despite concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.

The decision ends months of talks between US officials over whether to stick to a December 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or negotiate a new security agreement.

More than 4,400 American military lives have been lost since March 2003.

In recent months, Washington has been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces.

A Pentagon spokesman said no final decision had been reached about the US training relationship with the Iraqi government, but a senior Obama administration official in Washington confirmed today that all American troops would leave Iraq, excepting around 160 active-duty soldiers attached to the US embassy.

A senior US military official confirmed the departure and said the withdrawal could allow future, but limited, US military training missions in Iraq if requested. Both officials spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Throughout the discussions, Iraqi leaders have adamantly refused to give US troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans have refused to stay without it.

Iraq’s leadership has been split on whether it wanted American forces to stay. Some argued the further training and US help was vital, particularly to protect Iraq’s airspace and gather security intelligence. But others have deeply opposed any American troop presence, including Shiite militiamen who have threatened attacks on any American forces who remain.

Prime minister Nouri Maliki has told US military officials that he does not have the votes in parliament to provide immunity to the American trainers, the US military official said.

A White House spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said discussions with Iraq about the security relationship between the two countries next year were continuing.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said the US remained “committed to keeping our agreement with the Iraqi government to remove all of our troops by the end of this year”.

“At the same time we’re building a comprehensive partnership with Iraq under the Strategic Framework Agreement including a robust security relationship, and discussions with the Iraqis about the nature of that relationship are ongoing,” he said.

The Strategic Framework Agreement allows for other forms of military co-operation besides US troops on the ground. Signed at the same time as the security accord mandating the departure deadlines, it provides outlines for the US-Iraqi relationship in such areas as economic, cultural and security matters.

Iraqi MPs excel at last-minute agreements, but with little wiggle room on the immunity issue and the US military needing to move equipment out as soon as possible, a last-minute change between now and December 31 seems almost out of the question.

Regardless of whether US troops are in Iraq or not, there will be a massive American diplomatic presence.

The US embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world and the State Department will have offices in Basra, Irbil and Kirkuk as well as other locations around the country where contractors will train Iraqi forces on US military equipment they are buying.

About 5,000 security contractors and personnel will be tasked with helping protect American diplomats and buildings around the country, the State Department has said.

The embassy will still have a handful of US Marines for protection and 157 military personnel in charge of facilitating weapons sales to Iraq. Those are standard functions at most American embassies around the world and would be considered part of the regular embassy staff.

When the 2008 agreement requiring all US forces leave Iraq was passed, many US officials assumed it would inevitably be renegotiated so that American forces could stay longer.

The US said repeatedly this year it would entertain an offer from the Iraqis to have a small force stay behind and the Iraqis said they would like American military help. But as the year wore on and the number of American troops that Washington was suggesting could stay behind dropped, it became increasingly clear that a US troop presence was not a sure thing.

The issue of legal protection for the Americans was the deal-breaker.

Iraqis are still angry over incidents such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal or Haditha, when US troops killed Iraqi civilians in Anbar province, and want American troops subject to Iraqi law.

American commanders do not want to risk having their forces end up in an Iraqi courtroom if they’re forced to defend themselves in a still-hostile environment.