Iraq to command own forces by spring: US general [View All]

[sabra]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/05/061205143626.4ntwoh2j.html

Iraq to command own forces by spring: US general

Iraq's government will have command of its own armed forces by the middle of next year, a US general has said, revealing details of a deal between the US president and the Iraqi prime minister.

US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said Tuesday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President George W. Bush had agreed on an "accelerated timetable" for Iraq to take charge of its own security.

The announcement came on the eve of a much-anticipated report from a panel of US experts which is expected to recommend that US forces in Iraq do exactly that, in order to disengage American troops from Iraq's bloody conflict.

"We would expect to see the entire country having reached Iraqi provincial control by the fall of next year," Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.

"We should see the complete transfer of command and control of all Iraqi army divisions by late spring early summer," he added.