Obama sets Iraq deadline
Updated on 27 February 2009
President Barack Obama has declared that America's combat mission in Iraq will end on 31 August 2010.
But up to 50,000 US troops will be left in the country to bolster stability.
In a speech to several thousand Marines at their base in North Carolina, President Obama said Iraq is not yet secure, warning of difficult times ahead.
But his pledge has gone down rather better with Republicans than his own supporters, who have criticised the size of the remaining force.
There are currently 142,000 US troops in Iraq and after 2010, 50,000 will remain.
President Obama's announcement marks a historic milestone in the six-year war, which has seen 4,250 American soldiers lose their lives.
It's an insurance policy to stop Iraq descending into chaos thanks to the new administration's first change of foreign policy.
Candidate Obama had put Iraq withdrawl front and centre of his campaign promises but this halfway house would not have got such an enthusiastic response on the election stump. It is the Democrats who are at odds with the timetable.
The plan to leave thousands of troops behind is being seen as more reduction than withdrawl.
The President said they were staying to train and advise the Iraqi Security Forces but will US troops really be able to take such a backseat when violence continues on a daily basis?
American forces are mainly deployed in the north and around the capital but violence continues in large swathes of northern and central Iraq.
Two regions pose a constant security risk. In Diyala province directly north of Baghdad, Sunni insurgents are still fighting Iraqi and US forces. Three American soldiers and their interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb there on Monday during combat operations.
The second region still not under control is in Mosul in the North West.
